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TikTok overtakes YouTube for average watch time in US and UK

bbc.co.uk

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

#351

Post by onepointsixC »

tomp wrote: post #167
MathCodeLove wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see where you're coming from, but Youtube isn't nearly as opaque as Tiktok. You can actually search for videos on youtube, typically content is longer and has a higher production quality which reduces probability of doom-scrolling. As someone else mentioned, TikTok is intentionally designed to be addictive and gamified, much more so that youtube or facebook. And, objectively speaking, the US government is far prefe…

> Militarily, the US is allied with most EU powers (including France) Wouldn’t this be an argument for preferring TikTok over YouTube? There is literally nothing China can do to me as long as I stay firmly in the West. On the other hand, I could very well be sold out by Google to the US government, which could easily have me extradited from the EU.

> There is literally nothing China can do to me as long as I stay firmly in the West.

There are numerous Uyghurs in the West who would disagree with your assessment given the harassments they have had to endure. This will only become worse as China continues to become more powerful.

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

#352

Post by SilverRed »

alasdair_ wrote: post #297
freediver18 wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm guessing content owners may have realized the value in letting people use tiny sections of their songs. Meme songs on tiktok likely generate huge profits when streams of that song jump.

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

#353

Post by skohan »

m348e912 wrote: post #229
ng12 wrote: 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?

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…

You forgot to mention that TikTok enables the use of high quality copywrited music in their videos.

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

#354

Post by SilverRed »

m12k wrote: post #95
game_the0ry wrote: post #24

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…

Veritasium did a video on this recently [1] where he talks about how YouTube saw falling engagement when only showing users their subscribed channels, so they started recommending more non-subscribed content a couple years ago (he talks about this around the 2-3 minute mark in the video). [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2xHZPH5Sng

I feel like the subscription system takes too much manual upkeep that the average user is not willing to do. If I look at my subscriptions list there is stuff I haven't paid attention to for 5+ years because its too much effort to bulk unsubscribe. But the youtube front page picks up on this and just never shows me any of it.

The algorithm does a decent job of showing the stuff I have been interested in recently over just a simple mix of my subscriptions.

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

#355

Post by SilverRed »

fragmede wrote: post #242
neither_color wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they're very different platforms serving completely different content. I see tiktok as instagram/twitter/snapchat's competition rather than youtube's. If you go back several years on youtube(like 10 years back) you'll find a lot more casual low-res videos of people being goofy/interesting without any agenda to build a following. Nowadays youtubers are all "Hey guys thanks for clicking on my clickbait title do…

The lowered barrier to entry with TikTok and its algorithm means that someone with a PhD in an extremely esoteric field can do a quick presentation without having to make TikTok their new career. Real Engineering is great, but they didn't randomly fire off one YouTube video and get where they are today.

TikTok is also absolutely filled with pseudo informative content which looks exactly like this but the statements and numbers are complete garbage. Because the platform does not put much weight behind users and names, this stuff is just as prominent as the real content.

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

#356

Post by john_minsk »

hirako2000 wrote: post #334
randycupertino wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've ended up following, among others, an opthalmologist who does sketches about hospital stuff, to mechanics who show the most f'd up cars they get to service, to farrier and sheep shearing videos to a guy who does comedy about weird animal facts. I bet some of the uptick in quality of content on tiktok vs youtube is based on the length of videos. If they only have three minutes, all the interesting things will be…

It's exactly where the issue is. It's no mistake, product management at Google isn't dumb.. here is how it works. YouTube, for years even post acquisition made no money, kept bleeding to aquire users. At one point a revenue stream is implemented, which must keep growing to recoup the large investments. Not to mention, pure greed. The algorithm isn't designed to promote quality content to enhance the user experience a…

Please. I don’t want social features in my video library app. I unsubscribed from YouTube since I can’t remove “shorts” from the interface. I’m not going to pay for them to lobotomize me…

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

#357

Post by askafriend »

AlexanderTheGr8 wrote: post #323
billti wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have YouTube premium and love it. I mostly watch it for music videos and technical talks, and love not having ads. Watch some kids shows too with the 5yo. I nearly always use the web site, even though I have the app on my phone. Full screen browser tab on the desktop just feels more “TV-like” and engaging than staring at the phone screen.

why not use ublock origin, rather than buy youtube premium? UO will remove every single ad in browser. It's obviously 100% fine to buy premium; I am just curious about the reasons, if any.

I like the simplicity of paying for it and knowing it’ll work everywhere without having to deal with work arounds. (I watch on at least 5 different platforms)

I don’t mind the price - I love the straightforward model.

I watch a ton of YouTube and want to support the business as well as creators (they get a cut of the subscription).

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

#358

Post by yaitsyaboi »

bombela wrote: post #299
pininja wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I also have YT Premium. Those in video promos are so easy to skip. Most creators put them in the same spot every video, some even at the end.

These are mostly regular people trying to earn a living making high quality content. I’m not seeing how you can begrudge them the few seconds of skippable ad copy.

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

#359

Post by B-Con »

franciscop wrote: post #222

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…

Note particularly:

> However, YouTube retains the top spot for overall time spent - not per user - as it has many more users overall.

The HN title directly implies this, not the real start. It's misleading and needs to be changed.

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

#360

Post by lawtalkinghuman »

wutbrodo wrote: post #264
lawtalkinghuman wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd trust Wikimedia's privacy policy a hell of a lot more than I'd trust TikTok's. Also, the English Wikipedia article on cognitive behavioural therapy cites Cochrane reviews, psych textbooks and a whole volley of journal articles from prestigious journals like the Lancet and the Journal of the American Medical Association etc. describing clinical trial results, plus guidance from the UK's National Institute of Healt…

> I'd trust Wikimedia's privacy policy a hell of a lot more than I'd trust TikTok's Yes, of course. I wasn't clear, but I was referring to going through a search engine, not going directly to Wikipedia. > Presumably, the TikTok version makes up for this by having a better dance routine. I'm afraid you've completely misunderstood what this subthread is about. The _quality_ of medical information and the privacy concer…

I was being snarky about the quality of the information, but the privacy issue is the important one.

If the key variable is the search engine, then, yes, you probably don't want to be feeding details of your possible mental health problems into Google. Maybe DuckDuckGo would be preferable. Once you've put your symptoms or diagnosis into a search engine, where you end up is going to likely not be the main issue. If you type, say, "autism spectrum disorder" into Google, Google will make certain assumptions about you regardless of whether you end up clicking on a Wikipedia link, an NHS.uk link, some academic paper on bioRxiv, or a TikTok video with someone describing their autism diagnosis.

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