Cover photo

[Briefing] TikTok

(This is a live document to be updated periodically. Please reach out with ideas for additional information or other briefings.)

Overview

  • “Make Your Day TikTok - trends start here. On a device or on the web, viewers can watch and discover millions of personalized short videos. Download the app to get started.”

  • “TikTok is the leading destination for short-form mobile video. Our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy.”

  • TikTok, known in China as Douyin, is a video-focused social networking service owned by Chinese company ByteDance Ltd. It hosts a variety of short-form user videos, from genres like pranks, stunts, tricks, jokes, dance, and entertainment with durations from 15 seconds to three minutes

  • “TikTok is less a pure social network, the type focused on social capital, than an entertainment network. I don’t socialize with people on TikTok, I barely know any of them. It consists of a network of people connected to each other, but they are connected for a distinct reason, for creators to reach viewers with their short videos.Bytedance hasn't been successful in building out a social network to compete with WeChat, though it's not for lack of trying. I think they have a variety of options for doing so, but as with many companies that didn't begin as social first, it's not in their DNA. Facebook is underrated for its ability to build functional social plumbing at scale, that is a rare design skill. Companies as diverse as Amazon and Netflix have tried building social features and then later abandoned them. I suspect they tried when they didn't have enough users to create breakaway social scale, but it's difficult to imagine them pulling that off without more social DNA. But having a social-first DNA also means that Facebook isn't great at building non-social offerings. Their video or watch tab remains a bizarre and unfocused mess.” (link, more here) 

  • “TikTok’s biggest selling point is the ability to elevate creators who don't already have a large following. Historically, IG has serves to elevate influencers who already have high engagement, which stems from having an already high number of followers”...”The culture on IG doesn’t lend itself to “killing” off TikTok. Creators on IG overindex on perfecting aesthetics, having a clean grid, and the best highlights. The culture on (alt) TikTok allows for people to be silly, unfiltered, and much more weird.”...”It’s a lot easier to ignore Reels by scrolling past it on the Explore page (which I barely use), and much harder to ignore my FYP on TikTok, which the very first thing I see when I open TikTok. It makes it so much easier to consume even if I’m not a creator myself.”...”Reels on IG can only be up to 15 secs, and while TikTok videos started out as < 15 secs, they can now be up to 60 secs long. This allows for much more varied and detailed content, and for users to have a more tailored algorithm on their FYP.” (link)

TikTok Monthly Active Users (Global)
TikTok Monthly Active Users (Global)

(link)

The United States of America has 120.8 million active TikTok users aged 18 and above. 369.5 million users aged 18 to 24 (44.8% of TikTok’s ad audience aged 18 and above)

TikTok Audience

(link)

Landscape

post image

(link)

“Social media is an increasingly zero-sum industry. In mature markets people are approaching the limit of time they can spend online, and every minute you spend on social platforms other than Facebook means lost ad inventory, lost data that can be used to personalize better experiences, and reduced likelihood of future content, which leads to worse consumption experiences. It’s a dangerous spiral. The compounding “consumption → creation” loop that drives social networks can be amazing if it’s spinning the right way, but vicious when it slows down. So the stakes for Reels — Instagram’s answer to TikTok — are sky high.” (link)

“Facebook, Instagram, and Snap have long been in this race, meanwhile YouTube has been playing catch-up. They launched their own short-form answer to TikTok in India last year to beta testers. Now, YouTube is expanding its YouTube Shorts beta to the US. YouTubers can record, edit, and share content that’s 60 seconds or less and set it to popular music thanks to deals with a list of music companies including Universal and Sony. In what could be considered fortuitous or serendipitous timing, Twitter just shared that it’s testing a way to let you watch YouTube videos right from your timeline. <280 characters + <60 seconds. That sounds like a highly compatible match.” (link)

Peer apps: Kwai (Tencent-backed), Triller, Snapchat, Reels (Instagram, Facebook), YouTube Shorts (1,2)

Verticals

  • Beauty: Newness (link)

  • Learning: “BlaBla, an entertaining language learning app. Based in Singapore, BlaBla seems like a mash-up between TikTok and Duolingo. The company seems to be focused on acquiring and serving ESL teachers.” (link)

Product Portfolio

Creation

Algorithm (For You Page)

  • “The “killer feature” on TikTok is the algorithm — the sauce determining what appears in For You, the primary surface. It’s noticeably better than anything similar, like Instagram Discover. Apps are mediums of their own. What is appropriate for one platform may feel out of place on another. The context shapes the content.”

  • “How it works: TikTok's algorithm uses machine learning to determine what content a user is most likely to engage with and serve them more of it, by finding videos that are similar or that are liked by people with similar user preferences. When users open TikTok for the first time, they are shown 8 popular videos featuring different trends, music, and topics. After that, the algorithm will continue to serve the user new iterations of 8 videos based on which videos the user engages with and what the user does. The algorithm identifies similar videos to those that have engaged a user based on video information, which could include details like captions, hashtags or sounds. Recommendations also take into account user device and account settings, which include data like language preference, country setting, and device type. Once TikTok collects enough data about the user, the app is able to map a user's preferences in relation to similar users and group them into "clusters." Simultaneously, it also groups videos into "clusters" based on similar themes, like "basketball" or "bunnies." Using machine learning, the algorithm serves videos to users based on their proximity to other clusters of users and content that they like. TikTok's logic aims to avoid redundancies that could bore the user, like seeing multiple videos with the same music or from the same creator.” (link)

    • “Yes, but: TikTok concedes that its ability to nail users' preferences so effectively means that its algorithm can produce "filter bubbles," reinforcing users' existing preferences rather than showing them more varied content, widening their horizons, or offering them opposing viewpoints. The company says that it's studying filter bubbles, including how long they last and how a user encounters them, to get better at breaking them when necessary. Since filter bubbles can reinforce conspiracy theories, hoaxes and other misinformation, TikTok's product and policy teams study which accounts and video information — themes, hashtags, captions, and so on — might be linked to misinformation. Videos or creators linked to misinformation are sent to the company's global content reviewers so they can be managed before they are distributed to users on the main feed, which is called the "For You" page.”

  • Virality & Mimicry: “the TikTok algorithm is “built to inject chaos into the network,” creating viral stars out of nobodies and making innocuous moments the trending topic of the day. Small accounts can have their content surfaced to a massive audience at random, creating the feeling that anyone can go viral.” (link)

Reactions: Likes, Comments, Reposts (link)

Social Graph: Unconnected content heavy, Pseudonymity, Find Friends

  • “Communities have path dependence. You know that the first people into a community set the direction for who comes in, who feels welcome, [and] who feels like this is a space for them. That type of thing really matters. I think TikTok, what they've done is they've achieved a certain breadth and diversity of content which now allows them to potentially tap into different markets.”” (link)

  • Unconnected Audience - “Tech pundits already give TikTok’s algorithm tons of credit, but often underrate the simple fact that it has a great selection of videos to choose from. If Instagram wanted to turn their main feed into a sort of For You page — which, incidentally, they are sort of trying to do — it wouldn’t have the same feeling, because when most people post to their feeds, they are doing so for their friends, not the world. The intended audience is incredibly important.”

  • “Creativity depends on risk. It’s about putting yourself out there. Looking weird. People are only willing to do that in safe environments. TikTok’s unique network structure helps ensure this safety. All you have to do is create an account and publish videos.”

Inbox/Messaging

Profile

Hashtags & Challenges

Sounds

  • “If I look through the Billboard Hot 100 songs for this week, I can visualize the TikTok choreography or meme for most of the songs as I scroll through the list—from Olivia Rodrigo’s “Good 4 U” at #2 (before and after make-up transformation) to Silk Sonic’s “Leave the Door Open” at #4 (husbands leaving cupboards, toilet seats, and fridges ajar to purposefully irritate their wives.) Artists like The Kid LAROI and Masked Wolf have had their songs climb the charts after being popularized on TikTok. In Rolling Stone, Elias Leight describes how TikTok is minting the next wave of popular music: “The app has multiple ways of bringing more eyes and ears to a reactive song-video combination beyond just placing it on the customized, easily browse-able “For You” page. TikTok can add the song to their internal playlists, which present an easy library of sounds for users to pick to accompany their clips. TikTok can do banner ads, much like Spotify does for new albums, linked to either a video concept or a song. And the platform can launch a hashtag campaign, signaling that a new trend is a bandwagon worth jumping on.” (link)

Live

Notifications

Creators / Monetization

  • Creator Fund (1,2,3)

  • User Spending: Coins → Gifts → Diamonds → $USD

  • Commerce / Brand Collaborations

    • “In October 2020, the ecommerce platform Shopify added TikTok to its portfolio of social media platforms, allowing online merchants to sell their products directly to consumers on TikTok. Some small businesses have used TikTok to advertise and to reach an audience wider than the geographical region they would normally serve. The viral response to many small business TikTok videos has been attributed to TikTok's algorithm, which shows content that viewers at large are drawn to, but which they are unlikely to actively search for (such as videos on unconventional types of businesses, like beekeeping and logging). In 2020, digital media companies such as Group Nine Media and Global used TikTok increasingly, focusing on tactics such as brokering partnerships with TikTok influencers and developing branded content campaigns. Notable collaborations between larger brands and top TikTok influencers have included Chipotle's partnership with David Dobrik in May 2019 and Dunkin' Donuts' partnership with Charli D'Amelio in September 2020.” (1)

Moderation / Safety

  • “Beginning this week, TikTok will test the automatic deletion of several content categories that violates its policies, like minor safety, adult nudity and sexual activities, violent and graphic content, illegal activities and regulated goods.” (link)

  • TikTok announced a "family safety mode" in February 2020 for parents to be able to control their children's digital well-being. There is a screen time management option, restricted mode, and can put a limit on direct messages

Growth/Product Levers

  • Games: Simplifying game development through remixing TikTok (and Instagram) have shown that with the right tools (particularly the ability to remix), non-professionals can create short-form video that's as engaging as what professionals make. By revenue, gaming is an even larger market than video… but only the best game developers and engineers can make fun games. Building tools that allow anyone to make fun, short-form games (think Flappy Bird style games) and remix other games could be the foundation of an app that's even more popular than TikTok. I can't wait to see who cracks this code. (link)

  • Comments: “Parametric TikTok — a pattern shaped by the recommendation algorithm where creators make viral formats and bombard them w/ variation, not unlike processes seen w/ GANs and style transfer. My favorite instance of this is Little Durag, who created a viral dance set to Metro Station (lol) and proceeded to feed it input sourced from comments.” (link)

  • Distribution: TikTok on TVs - “Outside of our family, I could absolutely see people throwing TikTok on at a party - given its mix of music-driven clips and lots of comedy. I could also see people using it to stream their favorite TikTok cooking channels for example, as they might even work better on a big screen.” (link)

  • Stories: TikTok to integrate Stories with its main 'For You' video feed

  • Non-Audio videos: “About 20-30% of TikTok's millions of videos already don't require audio, according to Atmosphere CEO Leo Resig.”

M&A/Investments/Partnerships

  • China tech: TikTok owner ByteDance dissolves its investment arm - “Following an assessment at the beginning of the year, ByteDance decided to “strengthen the focus of the business, reduce investments with low connection (to the main business) and disperse employees from the strategic investment department to various lines of business,” the spokesperson said in a Chinese-language statement translated by CNBC”

  • “TikTok content will appear on TVs and displays at hotels, restaurants, and other businesses via a new partnership with Atmosphere. The Austin-based startup streams 60+ channels at 19,000+ locations worldwide, including Taco Bells and Westin hotels, via its Atmosphere TV platform.” (link)

    • Through the partnership, Atmosphere content editors will select TikTok videos for new channels exclusively for viewing at businesses out-of-home.

    • The company repurposes videos, removing any audio and adding its own music with captions.

    • On Wednesday, Atmosphere announced it had raised $100M, including an $80M funding round led by Sageview Capital and $20M in debt facilities.

    • It plans to hire "hundreds" of employees, expand its distribution network, and grow its content, marketing, and ad sales operations.

  • “Apps: Boomy, an AI-music composing app that allows non-musicians to create songs, has partnered with TikTok. Users can now distribute their music directly to TikTok, as well as Instagram, Facebook, and all major streaming music services like Apple Music and Spotify. To distribute to these services, users will need a paid account. Boomy has recently added rap beats and other genre styles to its offerings. The app reports that over 370,000 songs have been created using it, and says that 70 percent of those were created by first-time song creators.” (link)

Whitespace Ideas

  • Shift more from push to pull - User-defined, Custom feed, persistent feed next to FYP (e.g. #gardening only, other rules)

  • Communities

  • Informational use cases

  • Location-based slice of life (similar to Snap Maps)

  • ‘Refresh Mode’ to temporarily avoid algo personalization

  • Remixable video resumes

  • Expand TikTok API (link) - Gaming, job search, education

  • Make option to record original audio separate from video

  • Simplify product: Use TikTok Lite “This is a classic example of complexity convection. Products get more complicated as they age. It can be great for power users, but daunting for new ones. If I were Instagram, I’d pay close attention to this. It creeps up on you.” (link)

crowdfund://undefined?features=overview,backers

Appendix

Most-followed creators on TikTok

post image

(link)

(link)

(link)

post image

(link)

** **