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.
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.