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TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram

businessinsider.com

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Re: TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram

#301

Post by brailsafe »

timwaagh wrote: post #286
parliament32 wrote: post #146

The metrics make sense: as a user of both platforms, I'm spending far more time on TT these days than IG. My biggest gripe is Instagram is absolutely filled with ads: you get ads in between stories, ads in between posts, then a good portion of actual posts are "sponsored" (so ads from the posters themselves)... it's just a really bad mire of advertising and people trying to sell me stuff. Meanwhile TikTok is still fa…

TikTok is the first social medium I don't get. It isn't very good at figuring out my tastes and just serves me generic hot people content. It doesn't try to figure out who I might want to contact with either. Maybe I'm getting old or something.

You don't like hot people?

Re: TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram

#302

Post by mgalgs »

farisjarrah wrote: post #300
mgalgs wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm forced to use messenger for work but have refused to download the mobile app for this reason. Voting with my download count.

Ouch, forced to use Facebook for work... Thats rough... My last company ALMOST used Facebook for enterprise like 3 years ago when they were advertising it... So glad it was a flaming pile of garbage when we tested it out.

> Ouch, forced to use Facebook for work... Thats rough...

Yeah the worst part is that I can't tell my boss to screw off because it's my company :D We do some customer support on Facebook because so many of our users are there, otherwise I wouldn't be touching it with a 12 foot pole either.

Re: TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram

#303

Post by durzagott »

DelTaco wrote: post #293
m12k wrote: post #11

"It is the third most-downloaded app outside of gaming this year. Numbers one and two are WhatsApp and Messenger, while four and five are the Facebook app and Instagram." Facebook owns 4/5 of the most downloaded apps - just let that sink in for a minute. This space needs competition pretty badly.

To be fair, I've downloaded Messenger like 6 times this year because they prevent you from using the messaging capabilities of Facebook in a mobile browser - even if you request the desktop site. So sometimes I'll have to download it when I don't have access to a desktop, send or read a message I needed to, and then uninstall it.

You can use mbasic.facebook.com to see an low-bandwith version of Facebook. From there you can view and reply to messages without having to install the Messenger app.

Re: TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram

#305

Post by m_ke »

stjohnswarts wrote: post #298
m_ke wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

90% of podcasts these days are just people rambling on without much thought while trying to sell you something. I have a feeling that most people who listen to podcasts do so for background noise, as a way inject some dopamine into their boring commute or routine chores. I used to listen to podcasts a ton but switched to listening to lectures or conference talks.

What? My podcasts are all on subjects that I'm interested in and rarely (other than sponsored 1 or 2 minute ads that I can fast forward through) mention a product. What are you on about?

I mostly listened to tech podcasts like talking machines and econ/business stuff like freakonomics or village global. They all mostly follow an interview format where the guest is only there to promote something that they work on.

Re: TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram

#306

Post by mochris »

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #40
bransonf wrote: post #30

What amazes me is that Tik-Tok fills the void created when Twitter killed vine. Given the popularity of Vine, and the outrage when Twitter killed it, I have no idea why they thought it was a good move. I’m bullish on Tik-Tok because I think it’s the next logical evolution of social media (and totally captures the Vine fan base which was pretty big to begin with) First there was text, both Facebook and Twitter. Then i…

> First there was text, both Facebook and Twitter. Then images with instagram. Now people want videos that they can consume in short bits of time en mass. What you are describing is the continued fall to smaller and smaller bits of stimulation and information. I’m worried about the consequences of this on the human mind and humanity in general. Our tech is gradually eroding our ability to focus on anything for more t…

This is the same reason that comments should be abolished.

Sites like HN encourage people to read extremely short responses to articles, instead of the full article itself. Similarly, they encourage people to let others determine what is worth reading, rather than making their own decisions.

Re: TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram

#307

Post by m_ke »

hombre_fatal wrote: post #281
m_ke wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

90% of podcasts these days are just people rambling on without much thought while trying to sell you something. I have a feeling that most people who listen to podcasts do so for background noise, as a way inject some dopamine into their boring commute or routine chores. I used to listen to podcasts a ton but switched to listening to lectures or conference talks.

At the same time, the criticism is useless without knowing the podcasts someone is listening to. Pretty big difference between listening to Wendy Williams vs, I don't know, philosophical debates and deep dives into history and all sorts of intellectually stimulating things. Most people I know including myself listen to the latter which is nothing short of welcome mind-expansion and I'm a more interesting person as a…

I mostly listened to software engineering radio, software engineering daily, talking machines, this week in machine learning, village global, freakonomics, econtalk and other similar tech and business shows.

Most of the content in those shows is still fluff and nowhere near as information dense as a lecture from Stanford or MIT. Take talking machines as an example, an interview with a guy like David Blei will be very shallow and watered down for the general audience, I'd much rather listen to him give a lecture at a machine learning summer school.

Re: TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram

#308

Post by dang »

komali2 wrote: post #244
dang wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't take HN threads into nationalistic flamewar, especially not off-topic rants about astroturfing for which there is no externally verifiable evidence. I've spent countless hours looking at this problem in HN data, which admittedly may not be representative of the internet at large, but is the most relevant here. By far the overwhelming finding is that users are massively prone to leap to "astroturfing" (or…

99% of the time I'm with you 100%. This is the 1% so perhaps I can steal a bit more of your time to understand how to better have the conversation I wanted to have around the subject (and if the answer is "somewhere other than HN" that is fair and fine). I definitely wasn't trying to start a flamewar, let alone a nationalistic one - I do see an aggressive amount of pro-PRC posts (on other platforms), I have no proof…

I think all I can do is repeat myself: (1) don't comment about shilling (astroturfing/bots/trolls/spies) unless you have specific evidence, keeping in mind that the presence of opposing views is not evidence; (2) don't post flamebait, including nationalistic flamebait. If I apply those principles to your GP comment, most of it would disappear. Perhaps there's a version of it that could be rewritten not to violate them, but I'm not so sure.

I believe you about intent, but the sad fact is that intent doesn't matter in cases like this, because the dangers are mechanical and predictable. Arson is worse than negligence, but from a fire-prevention point of view there's little difference; and since many more fires are started by negligence than arson, it's the bigger problem.

Re: TikTok hits 1.5B downloads, outperforming Instagram

#309

Post by pmoriarty »

JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #40
bransonf wrote: post #30

What amazes me is that Tik-Tok fills the void created when Twitter killed vine. Given the popularity of Vine, and the outrage when Twitter killed it, I have no idea why they thought it was a good move. I’m bullish on Tik-Tok because I think it’s the next logical evolution of social media (and totally captures the Vine fan base which was pretty big to begin with) First there was text, both Facebook and Twitter. Then i…

> First there was text, both Facebook and Twitter. Then images with instagram. Now people want videos that they can consume in short bits of time en mass. What you are describing is the continued fall to smaller and smaller bits of stimulation and information. I’m worried about the consequences of this on the human mind and humanity in general. Our tech is gradually eroding our ability to focus on anything for more t…

"I don't want a future that is some weird mix of Idiocracy and getting the Black Shakes from Johnny Mnemonic. We need people that aren't easily manipulated by ads and disinformation campaigns and that can think long and clearly about something."

Sadly, those kinds of people make some of the best consumers, and many online companies (from advertisers, to game developers, to news sites) are optimizing for that kind of addictive, short attention span engagement.

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