TikTok owner ByteDance sees its earnings double in 2020 • Hacker News Board

Re: TikTok owner ByteDance sees its earnings double in 2020

#31

Post by Spivak » Fri, Jun 18, 2021, 2:36 PM UTC

Honestly, good for them. TikTok is such a breath of fresh air in the social media space -- it's bursting with raw unfiltered creativity, interactions are really genuine and I've actually met now IRL friends on TikTok. Their recommendation engine is scary good at discovery which solves the "I don't know who to follow" problem, the ads are the least intrusive of any social media platform.

If you don't "get" TikTok because your hobbies don't map well to video snippets -- stuff like makeup, art, fashion, cooking, baking, dance, inde music, cosplay, interior decorating -- don't write it off. It's basically a social media paradise for women[1]. Like the early days of Tumblr but replace gifs with videos.

[1] TikTok's format lends itself to hobbies stereotypically cultivated by women. The implication doesn't go the other way; loads of guys on TikTok. It also doesn't imply that every woman will find like it; don't @ me with logical fallacies.

Re: TikTok owner ByteDance sees its earnings double in 2020

#32

Post by marderfarker2 » Fri, Jun 18, 2021, 2:36 PM UTC

rapsey wrote: post #3

TikTok is a social network that could not be made by an American company, due to its complete disregard for free speech and embrace of censorship. This is a major part of its success, due to not allowing its network to deteriorate into culture wars and general unpleasant behaviour. I suspect any future social network much like TikTok will have exclusion as a major feature.

Ironic since your ex POTUS got banned from your own social media on grounds of causing civil unrest.

Re: TikTok owner ByteDance sees its earnings double in 2020

#33

Post by zffr » Fri, Jun 18, 2021, 2:36 PM UTC

ericls wrote: post #12

It’s easy to make money if you can sell addictive drugs before they are categorized as such.

Easy? I would push back on that.

TikTok has built a great app, a community of creators, an audience to consume content, and relationships with advertisers to generate revenue. They have made careful design decisions to engineer how addictive it is. This is hard work, and few companies can pull it off.

Re: TikTok owner ByteDance sees its earnings double in 2020

#34

Post by endisneigh » Fri, Jun 18, 2021, 2:37 PM UTC

belval wrote: post #29

I hate TikTok because it's so good. It's a frictionless content pump that we can open and doom-scroll for hours. I have never seen such a beautifully crafted user experience, from the recommendation algorithm that is top-notch the content that is catchy and highlights trends without overdoing it and the absence of political content if you don't engage with it (or maybe there is none at all). I don't have it on my pho…

your comment is contradictory - if there is no political content, what propaganda is there to distribute? per your own comment wouldn't they just be distributing the "catchy" content?

Re: TikTok owner ByteDance sees its earnings double in 2020

#35

Post by curiousllama » Fri, Jun 18, 2021, 2:37 PM UTC

The big difference between Tik Tok and everything else to me: when I stop scrolling, I feel _good_.

On Instagram, I scroll until I hate myself. On Facebook, I used to scroll until I got frustrated. But on Tik Tok - it's a dopamine hit without the hangover.

Re: TikTok owner ByteDance sees its earnings double in 2020

#36

Post by Spivak » Fri, Jun 18, 2021, 2:37 PM UTC

ralusek wrote: post #22

So I've learned that TikTok allows copyrighted music to be played in videos, and just gives a cut of the revenue to the label. Why don't more social media have this arrangement? YouTube not allowing copyrighted music is insane to me. Just give the label a large fraction of the revenue from the watch time during the time that their music was playing. How hard can it be to negotiate this arrangement?

It's up to the copyright owner if they want to take down or monetize the videos that have their IP in it.

Re: TikTok owner ByteDance sees its earnings double in 2020

#37

Post by lorlou » Fri, Jun 18, 2021, 2:37 PM UTC

rapsey wrote: post #3

TikTok is a social network that could not be made by an American company, due to its complete disregard for free speech and embrace of censorship. This is a major part of its success, due to not allowing its network to deteriorate into culture wars and general unpleasant behaviour. I suspect any future social network much like TikTok will have exclusion as a major feature.

What I love about tiktok is how they've managed to ban all political content. It's a social network which is fun precisely because it's not monopolised by rotten people with loads of free time.

Re: TikTok owner ByteDance sees its earnings double in 2020

#38

Post by curiousllama » Fri, Jun 18, 2021, 2:38 PM UTC

belval wrote: post #29

I hate TikTok because it's so good. It's a frictionless content pump that we can open and doom-scroll for hours. I have never seen such a beautifully crafted user experience, from the recommendation algorithm that is top-notch the content that is catchy and highlights trends without overdoing it and the absence of political content if you don't engage with it (or maybe there is none at all). I don't have it on my pho…

I've decided to outsource dopamine production to The Chinese Algorithm and honestly it's going great

Re: TikTok owner ByteDance sees its earnings double in 2020

#39

Post by xvector » Fri, Jun 18, 2021, 2:38 PM UTC

rapsey wrote: post #24

xvector wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you please source your claims? AFAIK TikTok ended censorship. You can even find vids with a lot of views talking about things like Tienamen Square, and I know friends whose FYPs are pretty political. It seems to me that you are confusing TikTok with Douyin (the Chinese version.) The thing is, TikTok's audience self-censors. People go on the app to feel good, not because they want to be dragged into another politi…

TikTok employs a lot of moderators and they go much farther than facebook or twitter by hiding or removing videos that are not upbeat or fun.

I couldn't find a recent source for this. My understanding is that the audience of TikTok does not watch it for content that "is not upbeat or fun," effectively self-censoring the platform.

People download TikTok specifically for the fun and upbeat content, so negative content naturally does not rise to the top (unless it is particularly comedic.)

Re: TikTok owner ByteDance sees its earnings double in 2020

#40

Post by weird-eye-issue » Fri, Jun 18, 2021, 2:38 PM UTC

belval wrote: post #29

I hate TikTok because it's so good. It's a frictionless content pump that we can open and doom-scroll for hours. I have never seen such a beautifully crafted user experience, from the recommendation algorithm that is top-notch the content that is catchy and highlights trends without overdoing it and the absence of political content if you don't engage with it (or maybe there is none at all). I don't have it on my pho…

Yeah I had to delete it. Something about the fullscreen autoplaying videos is really addicting. And then of course the recommendations are good too and are seamless.