The TikTok-ification of everything

Hey all, Robin here. 

Finals and AP exams have finally cooled down, so I can begin writing like normal.For today's issue, I'll be covering TikTok's effects on the internet for advertising, users, and possibly even how the algorithm could be shredding our attention spans to permanently change how the internet works.I'll also cover TikTok's algorithm and why I think it's the biggest thing for social media since sliced bread. Let's get right into the thick of it.

What is TikTok and how does the algorithm work?

TikTok is a Chinese social media app that was developed by ByteDance in 2016.It was initially launched in China as Douyin (literally meaning shaking sound in Chinese) and I'm going to be honest…

It was a quiet launch.But then things really heated up when ByteDance acquired a little social media startup known as Musical.ly in 2017. If you're a Zoomer like me then you'd remember that it was the hottest thing at the time - you could lip sync and dance to popular songs.I really didn't get it at the time since I was playing Roblox, but it's very significant in hindsight as it gave TikTok the needed niche and musical library to operate in America.  It was also significant as it was the first time a Chinese company acquired an American social media company (you can ignore Grindr since that was stopped by the US government because they believed that the app's data could be used to blackmail closeted Americans). After ByteDance acquired Musical.ly they ported their 250 million users on over to TikTok and oh boy: it was one hell of a start. Just kidding, the app meandered for a year and slowly picked up steam in 2018 and eventually exploded in popularity during 2020 and the corresponding Covid lockdowns. 

A key reason why TikTok is so successful is their algorithm—it's like going into the perfect restaurant, that knows exactly the kinds of foods you like and dislike, and the chefs cook it exactly how you like it to give you the ultimate dopamine hit. TikTok's algorithm is best understood using the follow mental model:

1. You visit a restaurant known as Red Robin - but this isn't your regular Red Robin; this is a special kind of Red Robin that has a near infinite selection of food.

2. You sit down and on your right is a conveyer belt of infinite food that's made just for you. This conveyer has a bunch of basic popular food items at the start, but slowly narrows itself down based on your niche.

3. You pick up certain dishes like a pineapple BBQ burger and onion rings.

4. The restaurant notes this so the next time it serves you a burger it takes note and knows what you like.

5. The restaurant then serves you something similar to your BBQ burger but this time with grilled onions instead of regular onions.

6. It'll then slowly tweak the burgers and food until it gets to your exact preference or something close to it.

7. Sometimes the restaurant throws in a few new and exciting dishes like a sourdough burger with avocado spread on the top to keep the food fresh.

8. Rinse and repeat the following steps until you dominate cyberspace.

This is, reportedly, how TikTok's algorithm works; just replace the food with social media content and the restaurant with TikTok.

This is known as a content graph - a content graph looks at what you've previously engaged with rather than a "social graph" - looking at who you follow.Most of social media as we know it as a social graph. You only see videos that people you follow have posted—a great example of a content graph is Twitter. You really only see content that people you follow have posted and sometimes the algorithm throws in a random viral tweet. 

The algorithm is  TikTok's special sauce as it has propelled the app to unimaginable heights of success in 2022. The app has gone from a knockoff of Vine, and a silly app where attractive women post weird dance videos shaking what their momma gave them… to the de-facto future king of social media. It also serves as a warning to American companies that Chinese companies CAN and WILL compete and borderline dominate American titans on their home turf with better products. It's also a sign that China, technologically, is moving on from being the copy-cats of the world to creating their own innovations and innovations that the west deems important to copy such as Instagram's Reels and Youtube's Shorts.

TikTok's algorithm is key to this success as it is digital opium - straight up digital opium. While the users of this opium may not smoke it, it is incredibly addicting and shreds the attention span of its users, and when your attention span is reduced a few things happen:

1. You can't focus.

2. You can't form close relationships and slowly isolate yourself to the app.

3. You lose your temper more often.

4. You can't focus on the world around you and not only appreciate it for what it is but for what it could be.

However, you can use TikTok in moderation, like most substances, I personally use it when I need to interest myself in a subject and can't nudge myself to learn it. TikTok usually has short and entertaining videos that make tearing through books and studying a bit more tolerable. However, I wouldn't lie and say that at times I have slipped into an addictive scrolling pattern at 2:00 am to get a dopamine hit.It's like a conveyer belt of all the food you'd ever want to eat and it never runs out. It's heaven: a perfect digital world with various adventures constructed just for you.

The TikTok-ification of everything

The success of TikTok and their unique algorithm hasn't been confined to just them—established companies such as Meta, Snap, and Alphabet have begun copying short-form videos and implementing parts of the algorithm into their existing products, and dishing out lavish creator funds to fend off the inevitable encroachment of TikTok.

However, this is too little too late as TikTok has already its place in the market and intends to fight like hell to keep via their moats

• An algorithm where anyone can go viral

• Success with advertisers (TikTok paid and organic ads do insanely well, if they're well executed and naturally fit in with the platform)

• Deals with the music industry

• TikTok's natural stickiness.

However, besides the consortium of Big Tech companies, startups are starting to take note and adapt to the changing social media space.Take a good look at Snack because Gen Z certainly is. 

It's the 10th most downloaded dating app and is on a very solid streak with Gen Z since it's designed just for them. Snack is like if Tinder and TikTok had a baby, but instead of a single photo of you shirtless or in a bikini on a beach, you submit a short video of yourself doing whatever you'd like. Snack also takes a few pages out of Hinge's playbook and adds questions where users can express their personality instead of just a vain picture. 

Snack is operating squarely in the 18-24 market—better known as the college market or the "I'm going to live life like a chicken that just got its head cut off and make questionable choices" market. 

This market has been dominated, in the dating space, by two titans of the dating world: Tinder and Hinge.Tinder first burst into the scene in 2012 with CMO Whitney Wolfe (now CEO of her own dating company, Bumble) - she went to chapters of her sorority across the country, giving talks about the service and encouraging students to install the app. 

Ms. Wolfe was a smart woman and realized that if you get the sorority girls to join your dating app, you reel in all the college-aged men too, and when those sorority girls have a good experience, they tell their friends and this spreads rapidly.This known as a "network effect" where each successive node on a network grows as the node refers other people to join the network. Hinge's go-to market strategy was a bit more different than Tinder's as the app focused on novelty and real connections to differentiate themselves in the marketplace and in this vain society of ours that sold that like hotcakes. Hinge is now Match group's fastest growing property and is growing at an astronomical and borderline incalculable rate in the app business. 

Snack is tapping into both of these areas by focusing on college-aged students with their marketing, authenticity via their videos, and with a pinch of endless scrolling - you have a powder keg of potential growth on your hands.

Snack has done relatively well for itself on TikTok and other organic channels by posting videos of them asking random strangers on the street dating and relationship questions.  

If Snack succeeds and meaningfully shapes the dating market, they could go on to carve their own niche in the market (dominating the 18-24 market), or possibly be acquired by Match Group like 99% of new upstart dating apps.

But Robin, how does this all tie together?

Simple. TikTok… Regardless of whatever happens, the effect that TikTok is having on the internet is immeasurable and the number from TikTok that users are "spending a movie's worth of time on TikTok" is insane.It's a sign that in just two years, an outsider to the Social Media world could disrupt the entire business.Short form video and content algorithms are, just simply, the future

And it is on that note that I will leave you with this chart. 

Bet accordingly.