[HN Gopher] TikTok has reached 1B MAUs
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       TikTok has reached 1B MAUs
        
       Author : mfiguiere
       Score  : 45 points
       Date   : 2021-09-27 15:27 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (newsroom.tiktok.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (newsroom.tiktok.com)
        
       | reilly3000 wrote:
       | Methinks that includes 'users' visiting embeds. They create a
       | user for anon web visitors and record their content
       | interactions/preferences in local storage- you don't have to be
       | logged in for this to happen. I've been visiting tiktok.com
       | without an account or the app and they serve consistently similar
       | content to that user based on my interactions.
        
       | Jazww wrote:
       | And god knows how much irreversible brain damage. Well done.
       | Congrats to all.
        
         | rvz wrote:
         | Let's come back in a decades time and we will see if they
         | continue to complain about it or if all the cool kids moved on
         | to another shiny new social media toy.
        
       | nunez wrote:
       | It seems insane how quickly they did it. How long did it take for
       | YouTube to reach 1B MAUs?
        
         | detaro wrote:
         | Youtube also started in a very different world in regard to
         | ubiquitous online access, not to mention _mobile_ online
         | access.
        
       | m0zg wrote:
       | Anyone who willfully signs up for foreign surveillance is simply
       | dumb. There's no other way to put it. That applies (to a lesser
       | extent, but applies all the same) to folks from other countries
       | that sign up for the likes of Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, or
       | whatever else the US Government can coerce into "intelligence
       | data sharing", and increasingly narrative peddling and
       | censorship. Even if you are liberal, this will to eventually bite
       | you in the ass, and it'll be bad.
        
         | jasonhansel wrote:
         | So...instead of signing up for foreign surveillance, we should
         | sign up for domestic surveillance?
        
           | m0zg wrote:
           | You are already signed up for US surveillance if you live in
           | the US, and have no choice in the matter. You have a phone,
           | right? Then they know all they need to know about you - your
           | location, contacts, emails, bank accounts, vices and
           | proclivities. I specifically said that people from _other
           | countres_ would be dumb to do so.
        
       | Abhinav2000 wrote:
       | I would have thought governments would be more worried about
       | China spying on everyone and the insane data collection from
       | TikTok (yes it might have an American operator in the US, but I
       | can imagine they found a way to still siphon all that data to the
       | mainland)...its a pretty big security risk if one thinks about it
        
         | jcun4128 wrote:
         | Would be interesting the math behind processing all of that
         | data to get some useful metadata out of it.
        
         | distribot wrote:
         | I don't understand the big risk. They build a profile about the
         | kind of short form videos you interact with. It's pretty
         | limited.
        
           | spoonjim wrote:
           | Have you read about the Cambridge Analytica scandal?
        
             | dzhiurgis wrote:
             | Yea, it's so overblown
        
           | ipaddr wrote:
           | Your friends.. mines your phone for data.
        
         | dougmwne wrote:
         | Their algorithm is definitely capable of determing gender and
         | sexual orientation just from your pattern of swipes, and I
         | imagine many other things that could be potentially sensitive.
         | I imagine China could have a shadow social credit profile on
         | every active user, figure out who is most susceptible to
         | blackmail or targeted phishing for state sponsored hacking. Of
         | course this is a massive national security risk.
        
         | imbnwa wrote:
         | Just curious, but what about TikTok's data collection is at all
         | distinct from what Facebook/Google collects? Wasn't it just on
         | the front page that Google keeps a history of your purchase
         | receipts in your Gmail account even when you've deleted them?
         | This article[0], while debunking the "Facebook is listening
         | through your microphone" myth, presented research that at least
         | ~9000 apps were screenshoting your in-app activity, possibly
         | recording video, and sending it to either a third-party or
         | themselves.
         | 
         | Or is it just that TikTok is a Chinese company?
         | 
         | [0]https://newatlas.com/computers/facebook-not-secretly-
         | listeni...
        
         | epsteindidntk wrote:
         | Is this a tired meme peddled by Zuckerberg?
         | 
         | All I see are people dancing pool-side.
         | 
         | All I see is billions of views being taken away from FB/YouTube
         | and others...and this is the great danger. Google, FB, and any
         | gaming or streaming service is losing their prime demographic:
         | teens.
        
       | joeberon wrote:
       | Nice. TikTok is very fast paced. For me it has done so many
       | oscillations between "this is very interesting stuff" to "it is
       | trash now, it used to be good" that it's kind of making a fool of
       | me. Not the usual slow downwards curve of most sites. Something
       | about how it works means it seems to continuously re-invent
       | itself.
        
       | pupppet wrote:
       | Just a little scary a Chinese company is shaping the minds of our
       | youth.
        
         | Ekaros wrote:
         | That or USA based one... It's kinda toss up. At least the other
         | one isn't bombing civilians in third countries.
        
           | rvz wrote:
           | Let's hope that we still have the freedom of expression to
           | make dancing videos in Winnie the Pooh costumes in Hong Kong
           | then.
        
           | pupppet wrote:
           | I choose the scary I have the potential to vote out every few
           | years or so.
        
             | Ekaros wrote:
             | I don't have that option with either, so I must go with
             | lesser evil.
        
             | ausudhz wrote:
             | Like it make any difference?
        
           | pupppet wrote:
           | Americans can read about those bombings anywhere. Where do
           | the Chinese go to read about what their government does?
        
         | the_doctah wrote:
         | Twitter is worse.
         | 
         | Reddit is more propagandized.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | mciancia wrote:
       | Nice. I wonder what kind of social media is gonna grow next to
       | tiktok/fb/insta
        
         | spywaregorilla wrote:
         | If we extrapolate the trend, I'm imagining something like
         | bladerunner 2049's baseline test:
         | 
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrP-_T-h9YM
         | 
         | The bare minimum of high velocity: Content, Query Emotional
         | Response, Receive Emotional Response, Repeat
        
       | kirykl wrote:
       | Is there auditing on their #s ?
        
       | madsohm wrote:
       | How? I know exactly zero people who uses it. However, I do see
       | TikTok videos on Instagram and Facebook all the time.
        
         | landryraccoon wrote:
         | Do you know many people under 30?
        
           | mrfox321 wrote:
           | even older people are starting to use it.
        
             | romwell wrote:
             | 34, active user.
             | 
             | It's the freshest thing out there.
             | 
             | The closest thing to IRC/chatrooms of Web 1.0 by how it
             | feels.
             | 
             | Yes, beats even Discord.
             | 
             | Like, remember the days where you could just go online and
             | bump into random people, and it would be _interesting_? And
             | you could just throw an ugly homepage with your dog and
             | "under construction" gifs without thinking twice, just
             | because it's fun?
             | 
             | That's what TikTok is like, but with videos.
        
             | [deleted]
        
         | Wavelets wrote:
         | I'm very surprised by this number as well. It must be young
         | kids. I don't know a single TikTok user either (and I don't
         | have kids).
        
           | jrockway wrote:
           | I know a lot of TikTok users that are my age (~36). It isn't
           | my peers that work as software engineers at tech companies;
           | it's more "normal" people that I have met through Discord
           | communities.
           | 
           | (I don't mean it's abnormal to be a software engineer or
           | anything, just that we're overrepresented on HN. _This_ is
           | our social media. I don 't use or enjoy TikTok.)
        
         | kenjackson wrote:
         | It's super popular. My son started using it and it roped in me
         | and my wife. Of my son's peer group, everyone uses it. Like
         | virtually every kid. I completely believe those numbers.
        
       | amriksohata wrote:
       | how much data have they harvested to target anti china activities
       | you reckon? i've had videos removed talking about politics in
       | china
        
       | Shadonototra wrote:
       | Shows how great alibaba's cloud is
       | 
       | It's sad they recently got forced to use something else in the
       | west, i bet that was one of the conditions to avoid getting
       | banned in the west ;)
       | 
       | That's why we can't have nice things
       | 
       | Looks like the american's administration don't want cloud
       | competition globally, reminds me of Alstom's story, and recently
       | OVH 'fires', sort of
       | 
       | - https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Caixin/TikTok-owner-ByteDa...
        
         | ausudhz wrote:
         | Most probably they'd use 0 cloud native services and everything
         | run as a custom stack in bounce of compute instances with auto
         | scaling and load balancer in front (or maybe K8, I'm
         | oversimplifing)
         | 
         | Honestly, it shows that perhaps they can migrate the stack
         | easily everywhere else (and indeed they did in the west).
        
         | mey wrote:
         | The other cloud providers can not compete inside China either.
         | The trade wars have been on the internet for some time as each
         | geopolitical region has tried to control access.
        
       | twinkjock wrote:
       | I prefer to call it TwinkJock, because those are the only two
       | body types I see. :)
       | 
       | http://TwinkJock.com
        
         | dbbk wrote:
         | Uhhhhh okay
        
       | egberts1 wrote:
       | MAUs?
        
         | pcl wrote:
         | Monthly Active Users
        
         | changoplatanero wrote:
         | Monthly active users
         | 
         | Number of distinct people that opened the app in the last
         | thirty days
        
       | rvz wrote:
       | Magnificent news for the investors in Bytedance since those
       | monthly 1B users on TikTok are providing great shareholder value
       | for them and when Bytedance IPOs it will give a massive return on
       | investment for them.
       | 
       | As for the users, who cares? they are working for the algorithm
       | like before and its business as usual.
        
       | throwawaysea wrote:
       | I worry about a platform controlled by China influencing so much
       | of the world's conversation. For instance, the CCP could use
       | moderation and algorithms to alter exposure of protests
       | concerning Hong Kong or movements to free Tibet. Alternatively
       | they could amplify the most extreme and divisive political
       | content that destabilizes their adversaries. Whenever a platform
       | grows to be this big, we need to treat it like a government unto
       | itself, because it literally has government-scale influence and
       | power. Platforms at that scale need to be regulated and treated
       | like a public-run service (with transparency, neutrality, and
       | local government control). It is absolutely bizarre to outsource
       | control of society's speech to giant private platforms,
       | especially ones that are under the control of a foreign
       | government with a long track record of coercing its private
       | companies.
        
       | sAbakumoff wrote:
       | good. a lot of these kids will be able to vote in 2024 and crush
       | Trump the way he never seen before.
        
       | jdlyga wrote:
       | TikTok has definitely become _the_ platform for short form video
       | content. It used to be YouTube, but it 's since matured into a
       | place to watch more well produced videos in the 20 minute range.
       | If you haven't given TikTok a chance, try it out.
        
         | periphrasis wrote:
         | Why would I want to watch short form video content? Genuinely
         | curious here.
        
           | wongarsu wrote:
           | It can convey more information than the stationary images
           | that dominate much of reddit, while taking less effort to
           | consume than text (it's really hard to get people to engage
           | with more than the headline in written content).
           | 
           | TikTok is imho one of the closest approximations of a
           | marketplace of ideas, or a penny-university. Every topic
           | under the sun is talked about (even if TikTok tries to censor
           | a bunch of topics), you have various experts from their
           | fields giving insights into their daily lives (like snippets
           | from the daily life on an arctic base) or short tutorials
           | (how to draw an owl kind of stuff), but also discussions
           | about philosophy or how to deal with daily life (e.g. how to
           | declutter your space if you are depressed, or how to arrange
           | furniture). And unlike e.g. YouTube's recommendation
           | algorithm that makes everything seem bland because it only
           | shows you stuff that's like stuff you already know, TikTok's
           | algorithm keeps exposing you to new things tangentially
           | related to what you watched/liked, so it's more like drifting
           | though an ocean of videos, with new stuff happening all the
           | time.
           | 
           | That said, TikTok should totally be enjoyed in moderation,
           | and there are some places on TikTok you should avoid. If you
           | linger on videos showing teens twerking, you will get more
           | videos of teens twerking; and it's easy to see how that kind
           | of content makes it a worse place for teens specifically
           | (plus the extreme prevalence of filters, so everyone on
           | TikTok looks "better" than their real life version)
        
             | periphrasis wrote:
             | Sounds like a gigantic attention suck designed to stimulate
             | addiction. Moreover, it's unclear to me why opening the
             | floodgates to more human expression without any concern for
             | the quality of that expression is desirable. The virtue of
             | social media seemed self evident in 2006 when we had little
             | experience of what it would mean in practice; in 2021
             | however, I think the premise that megaphoning unfettered
             | expression is inherently good requires justification,
             | particularly given the instability it has introduced at the
             | societal scale and the addictive behavior, poor mental
             | health, and loss of concentration it has often imposed at
             | the individual level.
             | 
             | Individual humans got along just fine for millennia without
             | being able to broadcast the minutia of their thoughts for
             | likes and subscribes: what are we really gaining by
             | suddenly being able to do so in the course of two decades,
             | and is it really worth the trade offs?
        
               | wongarsu wrote:
               | Humanity as a whole has spent the last couple Millennia
               | accomplishing preciously little. Not because there
               | weren't people with bright ideas, but because pivotal
               | ideas often took centuries to spread. Many see the
               | introduction of coffeehouses as a place of conversation
               | in the 17th century as crucial for the Age of
               | Enlightenment [1]. The speed with which we can enact
               | technological and social change is proportional to the
               | speed of exchange of ideas. In the 20th century the power
               | to spread ideas had largely monopolized, but now the
               | internet gives us many-to-many interaction beyond the
               | local level. And I will gladly concede that we haven't
               | figured how to do that properly, Facebook and Twitter
               | seem like mostly failed experiments. But that doesn't
               | mean that cracking the code for global many-to-many
               | interaction isn't worth it.
               | 
               | 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_coffeehouses_in_
               | the_17...
        
               | periphrasis wrote:
               | I agree that precious little occurred in terms of
               | technological advancement. However, I think it's a more
               | tendentious claim with respect to cultural achievement.
               | For example, all the great epic poems of the Western
               | tradition predate the Enlightenment (although there have
               | been notable failed/incomplete epics since then). In
               | terms of Humanism, it's unclear to me that we're doing
               | better than our far less technologically sophisticated
               | ancestors.
               | 
               | That aside, my broader concern is with our civilizational
               | stability. We are still too close to and to involved in
               | the events of the past two years to achieve any kind of
               | objectivity, but I am increasingly concerned that, at
               | least in the American context, things are not going to
               | work out. Between worsening climate change, an incipient
               | and solidifying neo-Fascist mass movement, the
               | disinformational chaos of social media, the mass death of
               | a pandemic, and an increasingly sclerotic US hegemony,
               | our civilization is experiencing profound pressures of
               | the sort which historically presaged extended periods of
               | violence and chaos.
               | 
               | I hope that I am completely wrong, but it's difficult to
               | read the stories (and for that matter the crueler
               | comments) of r/HermanCainAward and not come away with the
               | conclusion that social media has broken our society to
               | the tune of 2000 unvaccinated dead per day and counting.
        
             | mgh2 wrote:
             | The short format is very much like sales pitches, so
             | everyone there is like a salesman, bser of sorts.
             | 
             | Millennials created this trend, Generation Z is growing it.
             | Social media is essentially an addicting & fun platform for
             | mass brainwashing.
        
           | f0e4c2f7 wrote:
           | It's a similar dynamic to why tweets can be better than long
           | form blog posts. The time limit forces content creators to
           | actually get the content out. On YouTube (which I still love)
           | it's endless intros, ads, disgressions, and sidetracks.
           | YouTube videos often have the similar quality, it's just 40
           | seconds of content spread out over 12 minutes. TikTok and
           | twitter incentive for denser content.
        
           | spoonjim wrote:
           | There's a broader question of "why would I want to consume
           | any sensory input? Why would I want to read a book, watch a
           | movie, look at a sunset, have a conversation?" I can't help
           | you there, consult your local philosopher.
           | 
           | But if you do want to consume sensory input, what I find
           | TikTok excels at is: * Dances / skits * Musical
           | collaborations (esp. The Wellerman) * Funny little videos
           | like with a kitten or puppy * Recipes / cooking techniques
        
             | periphrasis wrote:
             | I particularly had in mind "why would I want to consume
             | this particular form of sensory input in preference to
             | others?" and "why is this good and useful to an individual
             | and a society as opposed to just a platform for selling
             | noise?" and "what are the social, ethical, and economic
             | trade offs of devoting our time, privacy, and money to
             | platforms like this?" As you note, these are questions that
             | don't necessarily have answers; I'm just trying to clarify
             | for myself whether I should view 1B MAUs with dread,
             | indifference, or appreciation.
        
           | dzhiurgis wrote:
           | Same reason you'd use twitter I suppose. That said TT's
           | biggest advantage is it's recommendation engine. It really
           | picks up quick your interests.
           | 
           | Downsides of tiktok is:
           | 
           | * can't find upload date
           | 
           | * cant effectively share links in comments (they aren't
           | clickable)
           | 
           | * pretty confusing video editor if you don't wanna share
           | results
        
           | romwell wrote:
           | Because you actually get to see people in their environment
           | and interact with them by _speaking_ in response, as you
           | would have in an actual conversation.
           | 
           | It's not about _content_ , it's about _communicating with
           | video snippets_.
        
             | periphrasis wrote:
             | Very interesting distinction. I remain deeply skeptical
             | that this is a good or useful technology, but you've
             | effectively summed up why it's compelling to users in
             | comparison to other social media. Thanks!
        
         | daptaq wrote:
         | I'll just relink to my last comment:
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28024747:
         | 
         | > My impression is that TikTok is the most shameless exploiter
         | of curating content to maximize attention. You resign all the
         | control and hope to petition "the algorithm" to change what you
         | get to see -- like some kind of a god that ultimatly controls
         | you, no matter what you sacrifice. They are in a position to
         | spread propaganda and prevent imformation from spreading -- or
         | you from being heard. Even more so, this can be individualized
         | (especially with the rise of virtual influencers). I wonder, if
         | it might eventually be able to change someone's mind by slowly
         | nudging them in the right direction, breaking down pre-existing
         | beliefs and positions. And as youtube, twitter, etc. have
         | shown, one of the main ways to increase addiction is to spread
         | controversy. Have people screem and cry at one another, who
         | wants mediation? Society is being reduced to a means of
         | entertainment.
         | 
         | Considering that one out of eight human being are using this
         | app is terrifying to me. Even more when considering that people
         | in the third world might be less likely to use a video-
         | intensive service like this, meaning that in the first-world,
         | especially among people my age the rate is even higher! I
         | consider it a concrete danger, that should be taken seriously.
        
           | ausudhz wrote:
           | I think this is a generic statement that can be applied to
           | any social media nowadays. I wonder what's the solution?
        
           | wongarsu wrote:
           | Newspapers can spread propaganda or keep information from
           | spreading, or you from being heard.
           | 
           | Yes, everyone using TikTok as their only source of news and
           | entertainment is incredibly bad. But that can be said (and
           | has been said) about almost any source of news or
           | entertainment. We should rather teach us and our children
           | healthy engagement with media, how to avoid addiction and how
           | to make sure we engage with different platforms.
           | 
           | If you don't let any one platform monopolize your attention,
           | having a Chinese platform as counterbalance to all the
           | American platforms seems great. A Chinese platform is
           | unlikely to have the same interests as a US platform, so it's
           | easier to see the bias in either if you consume both.
        
         | kevinlst wrote:
         | True, youtube was supposed to be for creator at first. It was
         | popular because of hilarious short videos even their tagline
         | was "Broadcast Yourself"
        
         | loloquwowndueo wrote:
         | Wasn't the tiktok app lambasted for being terribly intrusive
         | and data-collecty?
        
           | dzhiurgis wrote:
           | Probably same as fb and insta. Just use it via browser.
           | 
           | (It wasn't trusting my incognito mode when using playwright,
           | but saving session while in iPhone mode worked)
        
           | asadlionpk wrote:
           | 1B users don't care. Content is amazing though!
        
             | Nicksil wrote:
             | 1B users don't know.
        
               | rvz wrote:
               | 1B users will find out the hard way just like with every
               | social network: Data breaches.
               | 
               | Won't be surprised to see it eventually happen.
        
               | crubier wrote:
               | I still have to experience the dire consequences of all
               | breaches my data was leaked in. I guess the worst
               | consequence is probably that I experienced better
               | targeted ads (that were blocked by my ad-blocker
               | anyway?).
               | 
               | I'd say 1B users don't really care, and rightly so,
               | because really the data of which Tik-Tok videos you watch
               | is not really something life threatening for most of
               | them.
        
               | missedthecue wrote:
               | What would even a total and complete data breach reveal
               | about your average user though? That Jane Doe from
               | Billings, Montana loves (has a high interaction rate
               | with) short cat videos, squat exercise tutorials, and
               | relationship-oriented TikToks?
               | 
               | None of these 1B users upload their credit card info or
               | social security numbers to the platform.
        
         | soco wrote:
         | And they probably got there because Twitter killed Vine...
        
           | amanzi wrote:
           | People still share Vines on TikTok!
        
       | Andrew_nenakhov wrote:
       | Am I the only one who sees it as a problem that US and European
       | companies can't really work on China market, but they leave their
       | markets wide open for Chinese companies?
       | 
       | Like, no company is allowed in US/Europe if it does not recognize
       | Taiwan as an independent state? Isn't it how conforming to local
       | rules and regulations should work?
       | 
       | UPD: clarification due to people mentioning Mercedes, etc: my
       | comment was mostly directed at _internet_ companies.
        
         | jdlyga wrote:
         | That's the unique/controlling way that China works. They block
         | foreign apps to spur the development of local alternatives. But
         | plenty of western businesses have thrived in China. KFC, Pizza
         | Hut, Apple, Audi to name a few off hand. I definitely suggest
         | visiting a Pizza Hut in China some time in your life, it's an
         | experience (they serve wine).
        
           | vonadz wrote:
           | and escargot
        
         | endisneigh wrote:
         | Plenty of foreign companies operate in China, so not sure what
         | you're going on about.
        
         | runawaybottle wrote:
         | This was the digital trade war Trump almost started. He started
         | banning all their tech companies because they banned our tech
         | companies.
         | 
         | It's a totally fair point, but who knows how it would have all
         | ended. We'll see what happens next year when Xi is up for
         | lifetime appointment. I feel like that's the world's one chance
         | to change China.
        
         | buryat wrote:
         | there's Huawei and others that can't work in the US
         | https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/US-...
        
         | RicoElectrico wrote:
         | Yeah, the broken reciprocity (and how the West got there) is
         | embarrassing or even upsetting.
         | 
         | What if... just what if a few decades ago WTO didn't take
         | Chinese word for it?
        
           | Ekaros wrote:
           | I think any developing or non-western country really should
           | be wary of WTO. In general it doesn't seem to have best
           | interest of them at heart. Instead playing for established
           | players...
        
         | shp0ngle wrote:
         | Trump almost banned TikTok.
         | 
         | Then he lost elections.
         | 
         | You don't get to threaten TikTok and win.
        
         | thiagoharry wrote:
         | > Like, no company is allowed in US/Europe if it does not
         | recognize Taiwan as an independent state?
         | 
         | But not even US or most Europe formally recognizes Taiwan as a
         | country. In Europe only Holy See in Vatican recognizes.
        
         | hungryhobo wrote:
         | apple, bmw, mercedes benz, ikea would like a word with you
        
           | ausudhz wrote:
           | Microsoft, Tesla, Walmart
        
           | minhazm wrote:
           | I'm guessing they mean internet services. The list of blocked
           | services in China is large. Most of the companies you
           | associate with using the internet in the US are blocked in
           | China.
           | 
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_websites_blocked_in_ma.
           | ..
        
       | BitwiseFool wrote:
       | One of the most surprising things to me about TikTok is that it
       | _isn 't_ a Bay Area startup. For the longest time every hot
       | social media app/platform was American.
        
         | romwell wrote:
         | That's because TikTok gets something that people here don't.
         | 
         | Just look at this comment thread; very few people understand
         | what's positive about TikTok, what's _new_ and _different_
         | about it, and why both Instagram and YouTube can 't catch up.
         | 
         | Literally all criticisms apply to Instagram too, but TikTok is
         | not Instagram.
         | 
         | That's because TikTok is way more decentralized than any other
         | photo/video platform: it's less creator/consumer relationship,
         | and more of a community, like reddit or HN, where you
         | _communicate with video snippets_.
         | 
         | I.e. by _talking_ , which is _natural_ for us. It 's a big,
         | asynchronous in-person dialogue.
         | 
         | There's content too, but that's not what makes the platform
         | unique.
         | 
         | Why the Bay Area is blind to that, I can't comprehend.
        
           | silksowed wrote:
           | agree with all of this. in addition i am yet to see a content
           | algorithm that is as good as tiktok's. i swear it knows what
           | i like more than i do. ancedotally, whenever my close friend
           | and i share a tik tok there is ~50% chance we have already
           | seen it.
        
           | sergiomattei wrote:
           | To be fair, HN is a particularly conservative crowd that I
           | wouldn't say represents the tech industry as a whole.
        
           | draygonia wrote:
           | I disagree. How is Tiktok different from Vine or YTMND aside
           | from different video formats, editing tools and a catalogue
           | of songs? I understand they were able to monetize it unlike
           | the other two but they seem very much the same.
        
             | romwell wrote:
             | You mean, aside from literally everything that makes a
             | platform?
             | 
             | I have outlined how it's different, already, but I guess I
             | can give a more detailed answer:
             | 
             | * You _interact_ with _other users_ with _videos_ in the
             | same way you interact with users on HN with comments. There
             | is a built-in tool to  "quote" (aka Stitch), and link your
             | video to a video _or text comment_ that you are responding
             | to.
             | 
             | * The "duet" mode enables a new way of interacting: making
             | something _together_ with other people, take and remix what
             | they 've done to make something new. In particular, using
             | audio from other videos made something new: video memes,
             | where people _act_ to the audio that 's being played.
             | 
             | If you've ever seen Rocky Horror Picture Show live-acted,
             | it's like that, but at scale.
             | 
             | * Removing the friction for making a video is, in fact, a
             | big deal. The format (vertical video), the very-much
             | unpolished posts (unlike Instagram), the sheer quantity of
             | them removes inhibition from hitting that record button and
             | sending off your random thought about anything out there.
             | 
             | On top of this, one thing that I didn't mention is:
             | 
             | * Algorithm that does a good job of linking _people_ to
             | each other in addition to showing you _content_. As a
             | result, _TikTok automatically forms communities_.
             | 
             | If you use reddit, you know how cohesive subreddits can be.
             | TikTok's algorithm creates a somewhat similar experience by
             | bringing people interested in the same things together.
             | 
             | I hope this suffices for a start.
             | 
             | Before further commenting, I'd recommend you actually _use_
             | the platform. Forming a superficial opinion based on
             | second-hand views doesn 't result in being well-informed.
        
       | pugets wrote:
       | I wonder how many of these users are unique. TikTok makes it
       | simple to have two or more accounts. A number of content creators
       | (especially ones who make NSFW non-nude content) have alt
       | accounts that they can use when their main gets muted.
        
         | lightroast123 wrote:
         | Those two or more accounts have a shared device id
        
         | mohanmcgeek wrote:
         | Yes. These numbers are probably made up.
         | 
         | Instagram despite being around for much longer and not being
         | banned in the largest internet market (India) has only 1B MAU.
         | 
         | Tiktok isn't available in China either. That's a different app
         | from bytedance if I understand it correctly
        
         | ausudhz wrote:
         | Meanwhile FB, Instagram and twitter are full of bots and fake
         | profile.
         | 
         | Something that definitely can be done in TikTok also but the
         | nature of the content (video) make it more complicated.
         | 
         | FB is full of people with double profile also, I've friends
         | that have been having two profiles for ages. I think is a
         | common issue
        
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