TikTok reveals details of how its algorithm works
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Re: TikTok reveals details of how its algorithm works
#2Here's the secret sauce: "Using machine learning, the algorithm serves videos to users based on their proximity to other clusters of users and content that they like." It's impressive how they arranged to be transparent for everything else, but kept this important part opaque.
Rumor is that the actual secret sauce here is human curation; people hand-select videos with high appeal and label them "viral", "popular", etc. in order to astroturf eyeballs and clicks. I suppose that admitting this directly would contrast sharply with the Chinese-harmonious-technocracy veneer that they work to project.
Re: TikTok reveals details of how its algorithm works
#3Heh,
"We're a 2-year-old company operating with the expectations of a 10-year-old company," said Michael Beckerman, TikTok's vice president in charge of U.S. public policy. "We didn't have the opportunity to grow up in the golden years of the internet, when tech companies could do no wrong. We grew up in the techlash age ,where there's a lot of skepticism of platforms, how they moderate content and how their algorithms work.""
Well, yes, Compete or die. It's the same as a tobacco company start up.
Oh, wait, that's Juul.
What happened to them?
Re: TikTok reveals details of how its algorithm works
#4I don't see any details about its algorithm, just that they use a recommendation engine? Things like this aren't proprietary info, they're just how recommendation engines work:
"Once TikTok collects enough data about the user, the app is able to map a user's preferences in relation to similar users and group them into "clusters." Simultaneously, it also groups videos into "clusters" based on similar themes, like "basketball" or "bunnies.""
Although I do wonder, and maybe someone else with more experience could shed some light here, whether or not it is likely that TikTok has some fundamentally super advanced algorithm, or if they just do a better job of collecting data/training & evaluating their models?
Re: TikTok reveals details of how its algorithm works
#5Heh, "We're a 2-year-old company operating with the expectations of a 10-year-old company," said Michael Beckerman, TikTok's vice president in charge of U.S. public policy. "We didn't have the opportunity to grow up in the golden years of the internet, when tech companies could do no wrong. We grew up in the techlash age ,where there's a lot of skepticism of platforms, how they moderate content and how their algorith…
I think there's a part in your comment that you thought but somehow neglected to type out. It reads to me like two completely disconnected parts.
Re: TikTok reveals details of how its algorithm works
#6Maybe I am just strange, but I find no appeal in TikTok, and would not like something that just shows me more of the same things. But I can see how it might appear to people who just want to be stimulated with stuff.
Re: TikTok reveals details of how its algorithm works
#7Heh, "We're a 2-year-old company operating with the expectations of a 10-year-old company," said Michael Beckerman, TikTok's vice president in charge of U.S. public policy. "We didn't have the opportunity to grow up in the golden years of the internet, when tech companies could do no wrong. We grew up in the techlash age ,where there's a lot of skepticism of platforms, how they moderate content and how their algorith…
Re: TikTok reveals details of how its algorithm works
#8It's a (seemingly) pretty simple matter of keeping track of how long someone looks at a video, and optimizing to show them videos they'll spend a long time looking at. It's pretty powerful too, I spend much more time looking at TikTok than any other digital content aggregator (to the extent I had to delete it from my phone).
They also do some things like sprinkle in random fresh videos, potentially unrelated to your interests, to your "For You" to get exposure to them and a base idea of how long people look at them, which is nice because it potentially boosts small creators to larger audiences.
Further, I'm pretty sure they see what creators are keeping the most people on their platform for the longest, and directly compensate them. This gives rise to a host of "lifestyle accounts" where folks can live doing the things that some chunk of the userbase wants to be doing, and they'll get paid directly from TikTok, rather than needing to source a third party company to sponsor them.
All in all, I think it's fantastically designed -- to the extent I'm not sure it should exist at all.
Re: TikTok reveals details of how its algorithm works
#9I don't see any details about its algorithm, just that they use a recommendation engine? Things like this aren't proprietary info, they're just how recommendation engines work: "Once TikTok collects enough data about the user, the app is able to map a user's preferences in relation to similar users and group them into "clusters." Simultaneously, it also groups videos into "clusters" based on similar themes, like "bas…
More data beats smarter algorithms any day, and TikTok gets a lot of data because its videos are so short and interaction rate so high. There are tons of signals it can use as inputs: How much of a video did you let play before swiping next? How many times did you let the video loop? Did you like? Did you comment? Did you like a comment? Did you click through to the profile? Did you view other videos from the profile?
Re: TikTok reveals details of how its algorithm works
#10Maybe I am just strange, but I find no appeal in TikTok, and would not like something that just shows me more of the same things. But I can see how it might appear to people who just want to be stimulated with stuff.
I thought this would be the case for me, but after trying it I've been really impressed with the creativity and content quality. The algorithm quickly figured out I didn't care about teenagers dancing and started feeding me cool crafts and comedy, and my faith in Gen Z has grown dramatically.