I don’t think TikTok innovated by merely having an algorithmic feed. Facebook, twitter, YouTube have algorithmic feeds. I think they innovated in giving users what they actually want in the algorithmic feed. My understanding is that TikTok is much better at acting on information from users (ie what they seem to like/dislike).
I don’t know how much of figuring out what users want transfers from many short videos to text. For instance, dwell time seems an obvious metric but I find I ‘dwell’ longest on either things I find enjoyable or on things I find terribly boring. I hope it does transfer well – exposing people to more of the kind of writing they want seems generally good to me.
>I think they innovated in giving users what they actually want in the algorithmic feed.
People underestimate this. TikTok's algorithm makes the app enjoyable to use while most other algorithmic feeds make their respective service less enjoyable. I imagine that is because TikTok factors in other criteria beyond active engagement. At this point we all know it is easier to trigger active engagement through negative emotions. By simply prioritizing any engagement, algorithms like the ones used at Twitter and Facebook end up prioritizing content that delivers us those negative emotions in order to get us to engage. TikTok's algorithm also factors in passive engagement like the dwell time you mentioned. That ends up creating a more positive user experience because it actually learns what we like instead of just what makes us reply angrily.
I wonder if part of this is that TikTok is less focused on engaging with others and more focused on receiving content from others (I don't use TikTok...). When on platform communication happens it can be more personal as it is done through videos rather than text, where it doesn't seem like there's a person on the other side.
I think some of it is just that lots of algorithmic feeds take things like view count as too strong a signal and just promote generic content that has mass appeal rather than more niche content.
Algorithmic feeds have totally destroyed Facebook for me. And are now doing the same for Instagram (suggested posts). These are really the only social media I use. Facebook was pretty good when it just showed my friends on a timeline. When they switched to a feed it became a disaster and I had to leave it.
I don't like user-generated video content so I rarely use YouTube and I've never touched TikTok. But I don't think algorithms really help. I really prefer the user selection here on hacker news.
I don’t know how much of figuring out what users want transfers from many short videos to text. For instance, dwell time seems an obvious metric but I find I ‘dwell’ longest on either things I find enjoyable or on things I find terribly boring. I hope it does transfer well – exposing people to more of the kind of writing they want seems generally good to me.