breakout

But by leaning all the way into short-form at the expense of long-form, platforms are preventing creators from providing more value to their audiences... and earning more money.

“‘The Algorithm’ doesn’t measure what people want. It measures what people pay attention to.”

The way that major platforms currently organize their feeds is all about maximizing attention, watch time, and ad revenue.

Whereas casual fans might passively see what a creator posts when it’s served up to them, core fans actively want more. They talk about their favorite creator’s work with friends and other fans, they get involved in the creative process, they consider their fandom a significant piece of their identity, and they’re much more likely to buy... See more

The shift away from the follow was led by Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube, but no one perfected it quite like TikTok and their ‘For You’ page. Instead of giving users control over what they see based on who they follow, TikTok serves up a feed based on what they predict will be most engaging.