It presents an entirely different vibe than the other services you mention and is useful for different kinds of interaction and discovery. It’s simply really engaging and enjoyable for people to use.
Also the reference to “attracted big stars” seems confusing to me. The genius of the platform so far has been that it’s genuinely possible to participate as a normal person and a lot of the other content is created by actual peers of most users. As the stars and celebrity phenomenon grows there I think we’ll see the platform start to deteriorate.
The thing people miss about why TikTok (and WeChat for that matter) are so good is that they're born in the gladiatorial world of the largest and most competitive mobile app market in the world that is China. I know my marketers there work with not just douyin (the original Chinese app of TikTok) but also 4-5 other short video platforms. The pace of innovation in Mobile apps in China is something not matched anywhere else in the world.
Sorry, but social networks are made of people, without the people you don't have a product. He's trying to say that because important people create the community then that's the most important thing to the product in this case. Trying to say that the product creates the people makes no sense.
The whole notable thing about Tik Tok is that “important” people didn’t create the culture. It was created mostly by high school age kids sharing music and dance videos.
I guess the premise is that since Tik Tok deliberately sought that market... the success doesn’t count somehow... or something?
I mean like the entire planet is trying to market to that demographic. Nearly everyone fails. The distinguishing feature of Tik Tok here is that it’s a great well designed social product that’s fun to use and viral.
Sorry but this is just not a useful argument. Every product that targets this demographic is good because it targets this demographic? Face it, everyone is trying to appeal to these consumers, and most fail. Tik Tok did it very successfully, and merits some consideration for having done it in a crowded and competitive space, as did snapchat at some point in time.
Open, and you're immediately fed content with no interaction required. Not happy with what you see? Swipe.
It targets an audience where any obstacle, which includes as much as a button press, might lead to them checking some other app instead.
This is an insane reply, nothing about that post made it sound like they thought otherwise.
>He's trying to say that because important people create the community then that's the most important thing to the product in this case.
That's not what the grandparent said at all. He was saying almost the opposite, that Tiktok owes its success to "...its strategy to take on the world with the freshest possible generation of users..." whom it wooed by offering a fresh social media environment, free of important people, where they wouldn't feel like they were "...competing against those who were already established."
Their core point was that TikTok's success was because of its marketing strategy, not because of its features, which is what the person you replied to was contesting. No one was arguing against whatever strawman you were building with quotes.
(Don’t remember the exact details, but I recalled being surprised at seeing their spend per user/retention rates on an app trend analysis site a year or two back.)
This seems a bit hyperbolic. TikTok had 500M users last I checked, whereas Instagram has 1B users. Instagram’s growth rate was very similar to TikTok’s and remains while having an additional 500M. When TikTok’s growth rate saw a large increase, so did Instagram’s growth rate.
Regarding app usage and downloads:
- 2X Better User Retention
- No. 3 most downloaded app in Google Play ahead of Facebook and Instagram
- Most download app in Apple store for 5 quarters
- Growing 1000% YOY
In addition, free marketing is straightforward on insta, it is not even remotely so on TikTok.
Excellent synopses. However, how do you stay relevant? After all, the 18 year olds grow up to be 35 year olds.
TikTok and Musical.ly achieved their base of very young people who now all at 17-23 years old already feel that it is their default social network. Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are in a downward spiral because the new generations will only join TikTok as the big celebrities will go where their potential audience is.
It's hard. I was a youth worker for a bit. Anything I tried to get them to corporate in they rebelled because it was a "grandpa" thing.
Attention spans just don't exist nowadays. Spending five minutes explaining the manual of a game is over. They won't listen and get bored very quickly even if you get a round in. TikTok appears to mitigates that as you can do your thing in a matter of seconds.
Even the younger adult leaders were struggling to get them engaged. At least football's still a thing.
You don't. The hip, new thing gets recreated every 5-10 years.
I don't think they're doing it again though, many recent acquisitions (starting from Oculus in 2014) are VR/AR based, and AFAIK they're growing the core Facebook product instead of launching new ones.
Source? Interested in their early marketing breakdown.
You can have a free market bartering chickens. Free markets are natural.
Look at the beginnings, it was disgusting, but they were there patiently spending money to convince the generation that now with 18-21 already believes that Instagram is just a stronghold of retirees and no community.
They now feel part of something unique because getting on Instagram meant competing against those who were already established. Every social network must be focused in this way. Today TikTok attracted all the big stars, and the Instagram generation is really asking themselves, what is going on? (same question snapchat users did back then), the truth is TikTok is eating Instagram at some big pace and it will take it over completely soon.
Do you want to create a new social network? Aim for the 11-15 year old population and in 3-4 years you will have the strongest, most faithful and active community.