There is this TikTok clip suggesting that the currently ongoing TikTok Senate hearings are a result of media campaign paid for by Meta because they could not compete.

If this is true, why cannot they compete with TikTok? I know there are YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels. Why don’t they do as well?

  • @knfrmity@lemmygrad.ml
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    241 year ago

    The TikTok algorithms do seem to be better, and there’s some manual boosting of creators in the background as well. It’s also just a new platform and there’s a certain draw and hype to that as well.

    Another element is that Facebook just can’t compete anymore. They’re not an innovative upstart, they’re an ossifying tech monopoly. Their growth strategy for a while was buy them if you can’t beat them (Instagram for example). But they can’t buy TikTok.

    This whole anti TikTok campaign works in the favour of both the US social media monopolies and the military intelligence industrial complex. The monopolies get rid of competition and the intelligence agencies continue to have easy access to the personal information of basically everyone.

  • Free Palestine
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    201 year ago

    Every politician linked to the tiktok ban invests in facebook and google.

    Every single one of them.

    I know this doesn’t add much of value to this thread, but fuck it needs to be said more. It’s not about any of the things they’re talking about, the ban is for money.

    Also the ban (as i understand it) isn’t so much about tiktok, but is moreso a ban on anything the government doesn’t like in the digital & tech sectors. I.E. a legal means to push out foreign and startup competition so the monopolies can make bigger profits.

  • @v12riceburner@lemmygrad.ml
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    191 year ago

    All the content creators are on TikTok because they were first (not really but effectively) and they put a lot of effort in courting content creators. Once TikTok has the lead it’s hard to overtake them. YouTube shorts and reels have a lot of recycled TikTok content. Once TikTok is banned they’ll all leave for reels or shorts probably.

  • @StugStig@lemmygrad.ml
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    131 year ago

    Shorts and Reels are tacked on to an existing app while TikTok immediately plays a video upon opening the app. It’s not competing with the original functionality of the app for attention. TikTok is also designed first and foremost for mobile users while YouTube was originally for PC users. YouTube now nonsensically pushing Shorts onto PC and TV users feeds really demonstrates the lack of a solid direction. TikTok doesn’t really deal with a split user-base using inherently different platforms.

    Bytedance gives out a free basic and easy to use video editor, CapCut that helps lower the barrier for entry when creating short video content. It’s easier for new content creators to gain a footing in TikTok because of the way its algorithm works.

    From TikTok’s article on how their For You Page works:

    While a video is likely to receive more views if posted by an account that has more followers, by virtue of that account having built up a larger follower base, neither follower count nor whether the account has had previous high-performing videos are direct factors in the recommendation system.

    Interrupting repetitive patterns

    To keep your For You feed interesting and varied, our recommendation system works to intersperse diverse types of content along with those you already know you love. For example, your For You feed generally won’t show two videos in a row made with the same sound or by the same creator. We also don’t recommend duplicated content, content you’ve already seen before, or any content that’s considered spam. However, you might be recommended a video that’s been well received by other users who share similar interests.

    Diversifying recommendations

    To that end, sometimes you may come across a video in your feed that doesn’t appear to be relevant to your expressed interests or have amassed a huge number of likes. This is an important and intentional component of our approach to recommendation: bringing a diversity of videos into your For You feed gives you additional opportunities to stumble upon new content categories, discover new creators, and experience new perspectives and ideas as you scroll through your feed.

    YouTube and Instagram changing their algorithm to be more like TikTok would result in some push back from their existing users especially their top creators, who got there by “optimizing” for the existing algorithm.

    • KiG V2
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      21 year ago

      Shit maybe I’m about to make a TT to make content 😩

  • @redtea@lemmygrad.ml
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    1 year ago

    That would explain where some of that $36bn paid for the meta verse went.

    Edit: the problem has something to do with the type, length, and form of content on the different platforms. The length of YouTube videos is partly due to a deeply flawed commodity form. Content creators make increasingly longer videos, which are written solely with the purpose of selling products and services. It gets very boring very quickly. There’s a reason I don’t watch ordinary TV, and I’m certainly not going to subject myself to adverts just because the marketing execs figured out how to make an advert not look like an advert. For me, I don’t get turned off YouTube because videos are too long, but because the product placements make videos too long. It’s the same reason I don’t use Facebook or Twitter: the ratio between content and ads is far too high. For as long as these capitalists think their problem is TikTok or anything else out of China, rather than their own contradictions, they will never, ever fix the problem. Good riddance. Another symptom of the dying empire.

  • @Strayce@lemmy.sdf.org
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    28 months ago

    Network effect, first mover effect, and cost of switching. The appeal of any social media platform isn’t inherent in the design or the platform, its in the userbase and the content they create. Everyone is on tiktok because everyone is on tiktok. They launched first, caught on and got a massive userbase. It’s hard for users to move away from tiktok because their favourite creators aren’t on Shorts. It’s hard for creators to move because they can’t take their followers with them.