ColdFusion - Why is TikTok so Popular?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hi, welcome to another Cold Fusion video. TikTok is an app that's not really well understood by many people older than Generation Z, those roughly born after 1995, and even within that generation, it's not totally understood. But the social media app is actually huge, with over 1.5 billion registered users. As you'll soon see, the company behind the app is turning to AI for success, and you'll also see that this makes them different from the current generation of social media apps. So who's behind the app and why is it so popular? You may be thinking, well, who cares?

Starting point is 00:00:36 But the rise of this platform may soon take many by surprise. You are watching Tall Fusion TV. To give you an idea of the size of TikTok, it's the number one non-gaming app on the app store in the United States and the number one social media app on all platforms. In just two years, it's come to rival Netflix, YouTube and Facebook. The company now has 20,000. staff with offices in the United States, Japan, Europe, Southeast Asia, Brazil, India and of course

Starting point is 00:01:11 China. So what is it? TikTok is a short form video sharing app. Most people mistakenly think it's only for lip syncing or music performance. But after spending some time with the app, it's really anything people wanted to be. From comedy and memes to stunts, science experiments and other creative uses, the time limit for content is usually 15 seconds. Okay, so where did this giant come from? TikTok is owned by the Chinese company Bight Dance, which was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in Beijing. Bite Dance is currently worth $75 billion, US, making it the most valuable privately held company in the world. Who knew?

Starting point is 00:01:55 The founder, Zhang Yi Ming, was a former Microsoft software engineer and started the company in his 20s. The company Bight Dance is like a Chinese. version of Facebook with several other popular sites in the region. After releasing an AI-powered news aggregator and a chat app, they would turn to video. In 2016, they launched a short-form Chinese video app called Doyin. It proved to be popular with over a million users in a short amount of time. In 2017, they would expand the concept to the world with a new name, TikTok. There was competition, though. Another short video platform called Musically was already at the top with the app charts. Founded in 2014, Musically gained a lot of traction after the failure of Vine in

Starting point is 00:02:41 2016. Vine, who gave rise to personalities such as Logan Paul, ultimately failed because Twitter, their parent company at the time, didn't have the money to support the platform. Users migrated from Vine to Musically. By it Dance saw an opportunity and would buy Musically for $1 billion in 2017, eventually merging the two platforms and their associated user base. TikTok now has a monopoly on the micro video app market and in just two years is comparable to the old guard social media websites. In 2019, Bight Dance is said to be making a smartphone. The popular app, TikTok, and their parent company, BightDance, and the youngsters are really into it. What they put together is possibly my favorite name ever for a smartphone.

Starting point is 00:03:31 What we're looking at today is the Smartisan Nut Pro 3. It's TikTok or at least BiteDances first foray into smartphones. Why are we on three? And behind the scenes, TikTok may be looking to turn to news. The company recently bought a French news company and they also have a stake in a Los Angeles news company. And they tried to buy a major stake in Reddit but was beat out by Tencent, another Chinese company. Bite Dance also has an AI tool capable of taking over 5,000 different news sources and creating a personal. onlineized 400 word news article for a reader in just two seconds. Artificial intelligence

Starting point is 00:04:12 is at the core of what these guys do. TikTok uses a powerful AI tool that's more extreme than any other social media network in the West. The app's AI dictates the entire feed. The more you use it, the more it learns what you like. Of course, you can follow people, but that's basically it. Either you see stuff from people that you're following, or you just have an AI-powered feed where you can't select the content. It's just a full full. screen video that automatically starts playing. If you don't watch an entire video, you'll get less videos of that kind, or vice versa. This is a different approach to Facebook, YouTube, Spotify and Netflix. On these platforms, AI is merely a tool

Starting point is 00:04:53 that's part of the experience. It recommends posts and the user can choose from there, but TikTok on the other hand aggressively dictates what you'll see. As strange as this sounds, having absolutely no choice has been labeled as being integral to to the success of TikTok. As a macro business strategy, Bight Dance has two versions of their TikTok app, one behind China's censored and closed off internet, and the other one for the rest of the world.

Starting point is 00:05:20 Some analysts think that other Western companies should take note of this method. So how does TikTok make money? Well, mainly through ads and the sale of virtual goods like emojis and stickers from influences to fans. The exchange of virtual goods is made through in-app purchases of a digital currency. The poorer and rural areas of China and India have been augmented by this app, with homegrown content popping up everywhere.

Starting point is 00:05:49 In fact, 25% of downloads were from India, which just came online in a meaningful way in the past couple of years thanks to the geo-network by Reliance. The song Old Town Road by Little Nass would gain popularity thanks to TikTok and its suitability for memes. Recently, TikTok had to pay $5.7 million for illegally collecting information of minors, a violation of the children's, Online Privacy Protection Act, or copper, the very same law that YouTube was fine for and is now struggling with. Some have raised concerns over the Chinese origins of the app. Mark Zuckerberg famously spoke out against it. Every country outside of China has been defined by American platforms with strong free expression

Starting point is 00:06:34 values. A decade ago, almost all of the major internet platforms were American. Today, six of the top ten are Chinese. While our services like WhatsApp are used by protesters and activists everywhere due to strong encryption and privacy protections, on TikTok, the Chinese app growing quickly around the world, mentions of these same protests are censored, even here in the U.S. Is that the internet that we want? So this is one of the reasons while we don't operate Facebook, Instagram, or our other services

Starting point is 00:07:07 in China. But many other news outlets think the same. Wick, good morning. Several lawmakers are raising concerns about what the app. could be doing with users personal information and whether the app could pose a national security risks. We are also getting some news on TikTok. What's the latest there?

Starting point is 00:07:25 Well, Reuters is reporting that the U.S. government has launched a national security review of TikTok. So Reuters is reporting that there's an investigation here from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. Now, we've reached out to TikTok. We haven't heard back yet. TikTok has a lot of information and data on its users, but they've said that they've said they operate totally separately from China and that Chinese ownership when it comes to things

Starting point is 00:07:48 like censorship. So we'll see what this yields. Back over to you. Yeah. India briefly banned the app saying that it was causing, quote, cultural degradation among the youth. The ban was soon overturned, however. To finish off, one more fact.

Starting point is 00:08:04 The biggest TikTok star is Lauren Gray with 33.7 million followers. I have no idea who she is. And it just goes to show that I'm behind the curve on this one. and that's a bit of a theme. Nobody really knows what's going on with TikTok. At first, I had no idea what was going on with TikTok. I couldn't understand why the kids loved it, but I'd say good on them for enjoying it.

Starting point is 00:08:25 More power to them. But then I did download the app and try it out for an hour, and the AI really works. You do end up with a feed that entertains you, and I think the AI-driven approach works well for short-form content. Bite dance may be onto something here. But the question should be asked. Is this app meaningful?

Starting point is 00:08:45 Realistically, in 15 seconds, what value could be given to the user other than a quick laugh? I think it's an important question for longevity. Though on the other hand, it seems like Bight Dance is building an empire among the young that pretty much no one is looking out for. After all, they're the most valuable private company in the world, and have over 1.5 billion downloads of their flagship app, so they must be doing something right. It's going to be interesting to see how this all turns out. So what do you guys think?

Starting point is 00:09:13 Did you know all of these things about TikTok? Or has this seemingly come out of nowhere for you? Do you think the app is a stupid idea or just a harmless bit of fun? Or are you worried about the Chinese influence of the app? Next week we'll be checking out the pioneers of artificial intelligence. Who are the people that first imagine that computers could think? And who are the people who are pioneering our future? It's the fifth episode of the new thinking series based on my book.

Starting point is 00:09:38 If you want to see more videos like that or anything about science, technology, business and history, Definitely subscribe so you don't miss future videos. Don't forget to check out the podcast. Follow me on Instagram and Twitter. All right, this has been DeGogo and you've been watching Cold Fusion. Thanks for watching and I'll catch you again soon for the next video. Cheers, guys. Have a good one.

Starting point is 00:09:58 Cold Fusion, it's me thinking.

ColdFusion - Why is TikTok so Popular?

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