Live data from Hacker News

TikTok overtakes YouTube for average watch time in US and UK

bbc.co.uk

291–300 of 405 posts

Re: TikTok overtakes YouTube for average watch time in US and UK

#291

Yea, the Youtube algorithm is the "pick me girl" of algorithms. I watched one video by a creator I already follow about their solar panel installation and water-catcher garden irrigation. What do I get in my recommendations? Dozens and dozens of videos from completely random channels about solar panel installation and gardening. I very rarely find new creators on YouTube, who produce consistent high quality content.…

[deleted]

Re: TikTok overtakes YouTube for average watch time in US and UK

#292
post #283

Whelp this is not a trend TikTok really is just that addictive. I created an account and its a firehose. I post short permaculture videos: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMRfVWm76/

Heads up that your link, vm.tiktok.com is tracked to your user. If I go to that video and share a link, I'll get a different URL. Previous iterations of their web frontend revealed user account info (eg the name used to register the foxhop user, assuming you snagged that username), but it looks like the current frontend no longer shows that.

Re: TikTok overtakes YouTube for average watch time in US and UK

#293

Note that this is "average time on app", which draws two potential pitfalls: • Youtube is consumed A LOT on the website, including some people using the mobile website (not the app) to keep it playing in the background (duh). This only compares average time on app. • It could also be totally skewed, if let's say 100M people spend 2h/day on average on Youtube, and 1k (a tiny amount) spend 2.5h/day on average on Tiktok…

The article also says "Data from app monitoring firm App Annie indicates that average time per user spent on the apps is higher for TikTok, indicating high levels of engagement." Now, I don't know for sure, but I cant imagine that YouTube is integrating App Annie metrics into their YouTube App, right? It's not like Google dont have their own metrics platform... And is TikTok really using App Annie? So where are they…

You can find out which app is currently opened in Android. Do this repeatedly and you get an impression for how long which app gets used. All App Annie needs to do is pay popular app vendors to ship their data collection SDK. They might not get perfect data like Google does, but large enough samples to make statements like this.

Re: TikTok overtakes YouTube for average watch time in US and UK

#294

A couple of years ago, I noticed the youtube recommendations that would get were a lot less interesting, though still relevant to me somehow. At some point I started seeing a lot more "mainstream" content, especially after media companies figured out that they needed to have a youtube presence in order to stay relevant. So I wonder if the algorithm the switched to had something to do with them potentially losing atte…

I feel like some AI has decided that this video is "good for you". I have some videos on my feed for weeks on end. Now some videos I have already seen are reappearing without the red bar to signify that I have already watched them. Something definitely stinks with the algo on YT currently. At least for me

Exact same here, frustrates me to no end. They conveniently forget I've already watched some videos and they are shown as unwatched when I clearly remember watching them. Then others which DO show the red bar on the bottom indicating I've watched it, yet they still recommend it to me?!? Sometimes I have DOZENS of these recommendations in my feed. Lately it's been bad enough for me to really consider ditching YT for good.

Re: TikTok overtakes YouTube for average watch time in US and UK

#295
post #204

Can someone explain to me what happened to Vine? I feel like it beat TikTok to the punch by ~8 years before it was bought and then unceremoniously killed by Twitter. Was that the first example of US innovation being suffocated by the big tech oligopoly?

They fumbled the usability of the app. Badly.

Re: TikTok overtakes YouTube for average watch time in US and UK

#296

Thanks to the gross incompetence of Susan Wojcicki and Google abandoning their old motto, "don't be evil".

"abandoning"? it's still there.

> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don't_be_evil

> formerly

Re: TikTok overtakes YouTube for average watch time in US and UK

#297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vine's an example of the beginning of great idea that wasn't taken to its full potential. There are significant key differences between vine and tiktok. There are three that come to mind. Tiktok expanded allowed uploaded video duration up to 3 minutes. The For You Page algorithm (which drives the content you see in the feed) is scarily impressive in how it can match the viewer with content they would most want to see…

I always wondered how it got away with using copyrighted music... that was the wow factor for me.

How does it do that? I’ve watched plenty of youtube streams where some of the audio was cut due to background music.

Re: TikTok overtakes YouTube for average watch time in US and UK

#299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I refuse to use the YouTube app. The ads have gotten so bad. The website I can use an ad blocker and it’s fine to watch. I try using the app iOS or TVOS and it’s 3 ads to start and an ad every 5 minutes.

I recommend buying YouTube Premium. I’ve been a happy customer for a couple years now. It’s better for the creators compared to blocking ads too and they get paid based on your watch time. https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6306276

I do pay for YouTube premium. But the amount of ads in the video itself is just too much. Everybody has a sponsor to talk about multiple times in theirs video. And then there is the various interaction reminders. And YouTube stills shows me ads for movies and whatnot.

I am now combining YouTube Premium with uBlock Origin and SponsorBlok to get a decent experience.

Re: TikTok overtakes YouTube for average watch time in US and UK

#300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vine's an example of the beginning of great idea that wasn't taken to its full potential. There are significant key differences between vine and tiktok. There are three that come to mind. Tiktok expanded allowed uploaded video duration up to 3 minutes. The For You Page algorithm (which drives the content you see in the feed) is scarily impressive in how it can match the viewer with content they would most want to see…

I always wondered how it got away with using copyrighted music... that was the wow factor for me.

TikTok started as Musical.ly and had actually signed a deal with labels to use short music clips.
Post reply on HN