- byte sticks to the very strict 7s limit while TikTok is a bit loser
- TikTok's use of music and re-used sounds help bring popular "trends"
- As per the above, you can quickly browse other tiktok's made from the same sound / in the given trend
- TikTok has other interesting features too such as duos, letting you reply to someone else's video, side-by-side
- TikTok's are very easy to share, and most importantly have a Web UI
- TikTok doesn't require an account, as soon as you open the app, you're dropped right into a feed of interesting videos, easy to scroll
These platforms are all about content, and TikTok having penetrated the US means it'll be very hard for byte to get users, and without users there's no content.
I personally don't think Vine really failed per-se. Twitter just didn't think it was a place worth investing, so they stagnated. TikTok as mentioned above has brought many new interesting evolutions to the format.
Most importantly, their learning based feed is pretty top notch and learns your taste very quickly.
Such social media apps are extremely hard to overtake due to the critical mass effect, and that's the reason why Facebook still stands after all this time. Even sites that are strictly better than Facebook often fail due to not having enough users, let alone those that are worse. Unless there's a very strong incentive for users to use byte over TikTok, there's no way it will survive.
The official launch is the one time a bunch of people may give you the benefit of the doubt and try your app, and if you fall so short on the first impression, most people will probably never give it another try. And again, without users, there's no content, and without content, there's no users.
TikTok's penchant for censoring content may be the opportunity Byte needs.
Also, a lot of the popular viners wanted to be paid in some way, and they didn't really have a clear way for that to happen, so the creators pulled out and it died.
TikTok just did it better. Creators can easily get paid, videos are not forced to be 6 second max, and they executed better.
The real killer is the dances on the music. They don't have to invent a new topic every time. They just see a music video they like, and imitate it. Together with all the effects it's very easy to create a crazy video with basically nothing.
One example of an early "dance" was the Boss Walk. This one is almost completely gone now but it was essentially an inside joke to people who followed the content of the platform.
Another thing special to TT is that it was successful at sucking content in from other platforms, including Instagram, and then having that be remixed via the audio under unclear licensing terms. A good example of this is the "oh shit it's a rat" meme.
Once the meme makes it into the blood of the userbase, it doesn't even need the audio and it can take on a life of its own leaving behind most content origination though the audio stays.
The most impactful example was definitely Old Town Road, and the jump / costume changes. This song was huge on the platform and already waning before it made it onto billboard and exploaded mainstream
On tiktok, if 3 of your friends make the same video, the cool thing is to also do the same one.
https://rickyyean.com/2020/01/20/from-socialcam-to-tiktok-ho...
And why did Vine shutdown? How do you fail at user-generated content that you can sell ads and more on?
I ask because I still run blogs that are < 5% of the size they used to be, but still make me $50/month with zero effort in static mode. So why would I stop?