TikTok’s Future: Learnings From China

As online video platforms seek a business model beyond advertising, and short videos start to look more and more like commercials, it turns out that commerce may be video’s killer app. And not only could video apps become ecommerce apps, but all ecommerce apps may also have to become video apps. Various platforms from China show us how this can be ... See more

A central challenge for any recommendation algorithm is the tradeoff between safe but somewhat boring recommendations that are similar to recommendations that worked well in the past (“exploitation”), and risky recommendations that are unlikely to be good but have a high payoff if they do turn out to be good (“exploration”). Explorat

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-AI may be the solution to serendipity. AI-driven feeds untether the social graph from our offline connections: instead of hanging out online with the people you went to college with, you can forge new friendships and uncover new content creators. Bytedance’s suite of AI products—including TikTok outside of China—are the most successful AI-powered ... See more

• Embrace Opportunities for Edutainment. TikTok’s short-form video format isn’t just addictive—it offers brands a unique opportunity to educate consumers about their products. Additionally, teaming up with TikTok beauty and fashion experts, à la The Inkey List, can help brands build credibility and win over potential skeptics.

When a creator posted a video, TikTok showed it to a sample audience and then expanded to bigger targeted audiences if it did well—a form of a recursive publishing feedback loop. Creators with no followers could still reap rewards for videos that were funny and understandable by anyone. This was uniquely powerful for the medium of short-form video,... See more

In that same earning call Zuckerberg talked about how there’s a “major shift” towards discovery algorithms, because it “unlocks a large amount of interesting and useful videos and posts you might have otherwise missed.” But he doesn’t just see this as unique to Reels / TikTok. He wants to turn this into a major drive for all types of content across... See more