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TikTok and the network effects of creativity

eugenewei.com

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Re: TikTok and the network effects of creativity

#61

Post by fragmede »

user00012-ab wrote: post #46
tomerico wrote: post #29

The most disruptive part of Tiktok is how it managed to dramatically reduce the "rich gets richer" effect of entertainment platforms. If you upload a video, TikTok will show it to other users even if it's your first. This allows them to assess it and progressively grow its audience. On YouTube and Instagram you'd have to rely on search traffic or external sources to build up your audience and get recommended (except…

Are you sure this isn't more of the Medium model, where they can show you a bunch of new people all the time, but you'll never actually follow them or see them ever again (just another nebulous medium post)? So really the only person that profits in this model is the company hosting the content.

That happens with TikTok, but it’s a result of the app’s UX. (It seems intentional, but that’s conjecture.) Following a user whose video you like is easy, but the app defaults to the “For You“ page, which presents videos as picked by an algorithm. That algorithm doesn’t just iterate over all the videos out of a user’s followed artists, leading to the effect on creators mentioned. I may never see an artist’s new content if it doesn’t surface via the For You page.

Re: TikTok and the network effects of creativity

#62

Post by drawkbox »

tomerico wrote: post #29

The most disruptive part of Tiktok is how it managed to dramatically reduce the "rich gets richer" effect of entertainment platforms. If you upload a video, TikTok will show it to other users even if it's your first. This allows them to assess it and progressively grow its audience. On YouTube and Instagram you'd have to rely on search traffic or external sources to build up your audience and get recommended (except…

Youtube early days were similar to TikTok or any new platform, there are now just regular people doing creative things. As more and more videos are added, more businesses start to participate and more video depth/detail is added, then it gets harder to compete. It becomes less about just content value creation and more about content value extraction.

It is almost as if these platforms need a few different algorithm setups, the ones that are for more long term quality content, indie/business and just one that is raw where fresh content can be seen. They try this with "trending" type systems but due to market size they are usually heavily manipulated.

Right now featured platforms like TikTok are similar to like Twitter in that only the latest stuff matters. On Youtube it is more about quality, long term content for many creators. It is about right now but also you'll find amazing videos on history, art, gaming, development, markets, information and more. Youtube, Vimeo and others or sites that have been available for a while, are more about all types of creators so the real-time hype of new content isn't as successful for creatives, they start building more niche or long term bases that requires more work to produce. To compete the levels of production go up and up.

Shorter term real-time fresh platforms like TikTok are like the "new" algorithms on reddit/HN or the Twitter style freshness.

Longer term real-time fresh AND detailed deeper content videos are more like what you find on when looking for information on a search engine like Google or "popular" algorithms and more refined, more competitive and owned by larger players, but also more about information and answers.

Re: TikTok and the network effects of creativity

#63

Post by pfundstein »

uniqueid wrote: post #60

Every video I have seen that managed to escape TikTok's confines and infiltrate my consciousness could be inserted into an episode of 'America's Funniest home Videos' and leave nobody the wiser.

And I'm sure they're frothing at the thought of all the content they can copy-paste into their show.

Re: TikTok and the network effects of creativity

#64

Post by jsemrau »

cma wrote: post #55
tomerico wrote: post #29

The most disruptive part of Tiktok is how it managed to dramatically reduce the "rich gets richer" effect of entertainment platforms. If you upload a video, TikTok will show it to other users even if it's your first. This allows them to assess it and progressively grow its audience. On YouTube and Instagram you'd have to rely on search traffic or external sources to build up your audience and get recommended (except…

When I visit TikTok without logging in I see a side bar recommending Will Smith, Gordon Ramsey, Kevin Hart, Selena Gomez, and SnoopDogg. They may surface other stuff better than other platforms, but they definitely have the same "rich gets richer" stuff in the default landing page too.

Well, I am probably not getting the argument that you are trying to make. When you need to surface content without any idea what the person might like then using aggregates of popular content for a given culture is a good low risk default

Re: TikTok and the network effects of creativity

#65

Post by joewrong »

pfundstein wrote: post #63
uniqueid wrote: post #60

Every video I have seen that managed to escape TikTok's confines and infiltrate my consciousness could be inserted into an episode of 'America's Funniest home Videos' and leave nobody the wiser.

And I'm sure they're frothing at the thought of all the content they can copy-paste into their show.

they have an account @afvofficial

Re: TikTok and the network effects of creativity

#66

Post by myroon5 »

tomerico wrote: post #29

The most disruptive part of Tiktok is how it managed to dramatically reduce the "rich gets richer" effect of entertainment platforms. If you upload a video, TikTok will show it to other users even if it's your first. This allows them to assess it and progressively grow its audience. On YouTube and Instagram you'd have to rely on search traffic or external sources to build up your audience and get recommended (except…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most-followed_TikTok_a... does have less traditional celebrities compared to the lists for other social media platforms

Re: TikTok and the network effects of creativity

#67

Post by vinger »

jsemrau wrote: post #64
cma wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I visit TikTok without logging in I see a side bar recommending Will Smith, Gordon Ramsey, Kevin Hart, Selena Gomez, and SnoopDogg. They may surface other stuff better than other platforms, but they definitely have the same "rich gets richer" stuff in the default landing page too.

Well, I am probably not getting the argument that you are trying to make. When you need to surface content without any idea what the person might like then using aggregates of popular content for a given culture is a good low risk default

I think he was expecting popular content from unknown/non mainstream artists instead of popular content from popular artists that can be found anywhere.

Re: TikTok and the network effects of creativity

#68

Post by fakedang »

fragmede wrote: post #61
user00012-ab wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you sure this isn't more of the Medium model, where they can show you a bunch of new people all the time, but you'll never actually follow them or see them ever again (just another nebulous medium post)? So really the only person that profits in this model is the company hosting the content.

That happens with TikTok, but it’s a result of the app’s UX. (It seems intentional, but that’s conjecture.) Following a user whose video you like is easy, but the app defaults to the “For You“ page, which presents videos as picked by an algorithm. That algorithm doesn’t just iterate over all the videos out of a user’s followed artists, leading to the effect on creators mentioned. I may never see an artist’s new conte…

Exactly. I think their algorithm explanation explicitly mentioned giving less weightage for follower counts and users following a particular creator. I'll not be surprised if the following feature is mostly for satisfying creator egos (thus helping to keep them on the platform) and not for the algorithm itself.

One excellent feature of the algorithm is how it ties user feedback to the type of content shown and not to the creator of the content, thus giving better recommendations.

Re: TikTok and the network effects of creativity

#69

Post by vinger »

tp3 wrote: post #49
nikki93 wrote: post #32

I think the "each new member can enhance creativity of existing members" vibe can exist generally among "scenes", and scenes definitely can use technology that directly taps into this. I like the "scenius" term for this from Brian Eno: https://youtu.be/0qATeJcL1XQ (54:15 in that talk)

TikTok describes itself as: "The most fun, honest, true and honest place on the web you will ever get." That's how TikTok feels. The thing about TikTok is that, like with Facebook itself, you know every detail right from the beginning. Your friends and everyone who you have ever interacted with on Facebook are your peers. But TikTok is more powerful than Facebook when it comes to the social fabric. TikTok is like a c…

But there are limits. Nudity for one. Sexual content. Nevermind the more serious beheadings or jihad videos.

Re: TikTok and the network effects of creativity

#70

Post by vinger »

Firebrand wrote: post #21

I don’t know why people are underestimating Instagram Reels. Instagram may be becoming more of an entertainment app like TikTok but it is still a social network. All content creators care about is engagement, and having the ability to push your short video into your Stories and your follower’s main feed increases your chances of it being seen instead of relying on an algorithm.

You do rely on an algorithms on the story feed and main feed.

Reels are kinda misplaced. They are so short but require so much navigation. Why not just post a short video. Ig live videos are more important and need the first class treatment (a seperate search, a ig live discovery page)

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