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Ask HN: Techwise, how did TikTok get so good?

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Re: Ask HN: Techwise, how did TikTok get so good?

#41

Post by zippy2 »

I've noticed that TikTok will show you unfamiliar content about every 10 or so videos. I suspect this is to explore it's knowledge graph of categories you might be interested in, and also keeping things fresh. I've found this mechanism fantastic, as it's shown me videos of places around my hometown that I've gone out to visit that I would have no idea even existed in the first place. This on top of a more traditional learning algorithm makes it very addictive.

If you compare this to YouTube, you can tell they've resorted their algorithm back to a more curated list of recommended videos. This blocks new content creators out and keeps the recommended list stale. You can also tell they've weighted videos with the highest ad revenue, so you're more likely to get frustrating long ads with vapid click bait style content. It's no wonder why YouTube lost the top spot of video sites, as they've put advertising ahead of content creators and viewers.

I've bought several products from TikTok ads. I usually never buy things based on online ads. Because their ads are skippable, and have to demonstrate their use instantly, they're very effective. Again, compared to YouTube, their ads tend to focus on long droning corporate agendas and visions. These don't make me want to use the platform.

Re: Ask HN: Techwise, how did TikTok get so good?

#42

Post by brutus1213 »

Here you go: https://arxiv.org/abs/2204.12954 .. not from TikTok but some researchers who reverse engineered some network aspects. Thought the paper is well worth the read.

Systems research people are not valued enough .. my understanding is a bunch (not sure about number) of ex-MSR folks went to ByteDance .. sizable pay bumps.

Re: Ask HN: Techwise, how did TikTok get so good?

#43

Post by hot_gril »

zeehio wrote: post #17

Last week I was travelling on a different country. I was mostly without WiFi and I bought a prepaid SIM card with some GB. TikTok ate 2GB of "background data" in two days, even if I did not open the app. So it's not hard for me to guess how they do it... (Yes, background data is now disabled for TikTok on my phone... I learned my lesson)

Won't be long before some cell plans have special discounts for TikTok data like with WhatsApp. Unless it's a thing already.

Re: Ask HN: Techwise, how did TikTok get so good?

#44

Post by MonkeyMalarky »

guptaneil wrote: post #8

I don’t have any unique insights into TikTok nor do I use the app, but TikTok has several product advantages over those other platforms: 1. They only have a queue of videos. That means there is one video playing and they know exactly what the next N videos are going to be, so they can start buffering them early 2. The video plays are high intent. If you launch TikTok, you are 100% going to watch videos. This is not t…

Expanding on point #4, the videos are much shorter than other platforms like say for example, YouTube, so for the same X minutes that a user watches or interacts with content, tiktok has more points of observation for what type of stuff the user likes and therefore can learn using ML much faster.

Re: Ask HN: Techwise, how did TikTok get so good?

#45

Post by hot_gril »

readonthegoapp wrote: post #34
keepquestioning wrote: post #18

Is the tiktok tech REALLY that good?

i don't know if TikTok's tech is that good or not, but it seems apparent that silicon valley was unable to compete with it until we got even more-massive direct assistance from Uncle Sam and other government entities.

Yep, YouTube had no real competitors until TikTok came out. Get too comfy, and this is what happens.

Re: Ask HN: Techwise, how did TikTok get so good?

#46

Post by Scaevolus »

sct202 wrote: post #10
guptaneil wrote: post #8

I don’t have any unique insights into TikTok nor do I use the app, but TikTok has several product advantages over those other platforms: 1. They only have a queue of videos. That means there is one video playing and they know exactly what the next N videos are going to be, so they can start buffering them early 2. The video plays are high intent. If you launch TikTok, you are 100% going to watch videos. This is not t…

I wonder for me at least, why Instagram Reels is super blurry compared to TikTok, like since they should have the all the same conditions except for #5.

Instagram uses DASH (chunked, adaptive streaming) and starts playing with a low res, and aggressively compresses video. Tiktok's api just returns a bunch of different CDN urls for different MP4s of the video (HQ often being 576P CRF24), and the client loads whatever bitrate it has detected it can load without hiccuping.

Re: Ask HN: Techwise, how did TikTok get so good?

#47

Post by TechnicolorByte »

jawr wrote: post #33
nostromo wrote: post #25

> Compare that to the Reddit video player This is worthy of it's own question. Why is Reddit's player so uniquely bad? It's worse than any other video player on the entire internet.

It’s serverless

For someone who doesn’t know much about this stuff, what does that mean?

Re: Ask HN: Techwise, how did TikTok get so good?

#48

Post by boringg »

iKlsR wrote: post #11
guptaneil wrote: post #8

I don’t have any unique insights into TikTok nor do I use the app, but TikTok has several product advantages over those other platforms: 1. They only have a queue of videos. That means there is one video playing and they know exactly what the next N videos are going to be, so they can start buffering them early 2. The video plays are high intent. If you launch TikTok, you are 100% going to watch videos. This is not t…

This list is focused on videos but the search is what is beyond good, it's one of the best searches I've ever seen for content. You can literally use it as you would google. I'm assuming they transcribe their videos as well as run some object detection or image to text models that generate some metadata as to what is happening and or who or what is in a clip.

Lots of people tagging the videos in the background for better algorithmic access.

Re: Ask HN: Techwise, how did TikTok get so good?

#49

Post by Jonovono »

muzani wrote: post #27
dbbk wrote: post #5

"It rarely buffers or fails to load" this is because the next 6 or so videos are known and buffered ahead of time. This isn't really the case on other sites.

There's a trick with Spotify, where they buffer a few seconds from expected next songs and load the rest once it picks which song is next. You can test this by cutting off internet, then pressing next song at the same time.

They featured this on the show The Playlist. Really fun show btw

Re: Ask HN: Techwise, how did TikTok get so good?

#50

Post by throwawaylinux »

Kukumber wrote: post #13
guptaneil wrote: post #8

I don’t have any unique insights into TikTok nor do I use the app, but TikTok has several product advantages over those other platforms: 1. They only have a queue of videos. That means there is one video playing and they know exactly what the next N videos are going to be, so they can start buffering them early 2. The video plays are high intent. If you launch TikTok, you are 100% going to watch videos. This is not t…

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