Also, what's the alternative? Every other social media app, including the one you're using to post this would jump at the opportunity to have their own version of TikTok, in fact, they have tried and failed.
Everyone (in the tech media particularly, but also in lay commentary) seems to frame this as a matter of TikTok having the secret algorithmic sauce which the Silicon Valley firms are unable to replicate, and unable to compete with, but I truly think this is a red herring. What TikTok has (or lacks, rather) is the abysmal reputation of its Silicon Valley competitors. Due to this, it was able to attract a large number of content creators who have zero interest in setting up shop on Facebook's fifth platform, or any skuldugging Silicon Valley ad-tech company with the capital to create their own Twitter / YouTube / Instagram rip-off.
TikTok has been a rich source of original content from the beginning, many of which gets re-posted by fans on other websites. Meanwhile, whenever Mark Zuckerberg or Jack Dorsey spin up a new platform, it is dominated by communications interns and brand accounts, just treating it as a fifteenth place to dump their corporate promotions.
Note that many of the most successful monopoly platforms today (setting aside Facebook itself, the canonical monopoly platform) grew popular before their acquisitions. Instagram, WhatsApp, Twitch, YouTube, etc. I think it is impossible for a company like Google, Amazon, or Meta to come out and openly found a successful platform at this late date, and it has absolutely NOTHING to do with the technology. Even though Meta was in the right time and place to launch Threads, nobody apparently uses it aside from Burger King. Everyone migrated instead to BlueSky (which is perceived as independent for some reason) or, to a smaller degree, Mastodon.
The "problem" with TikTok is not their superior, inscrutable technology, but the fact that they are unwilling to be swallowed up like Instagram. Their intransigent Chinese owners don't understand that they're obligated to sell when a briefcase full of money is thrown in their face.
Fuck me I guess!
Also, what's the alternative? Every other social media app, including the one you're using to post this would jump at the opportunity to have their own version of TikTok, in fact, they have tried and failed.
That’s exactly it. Kick out evil menacing oriental TikTok, replace with good wholesome all-American Instagram Reels By MetaTM
Everyone (in the tech media particularly, but also in lay commentary) seems to frame this as a matter of TikTok having the secret algorithmic sauce which the Silicon Valley firms are unable to replicate, and unable to compete with, but I truly think this is a red herring. What TikTok has (or lacks, rather) is the abysmal reputation of its Silicon Valley competitors. Due to this, it was able to attract a large number of content creators who have zero interest in setting up shop on Facebook's fifth platform, or any skuldugging Silicon Valley ad-tech company with the capital to create their own Twitter / YouTube / Instagram rip-off.
TikTok has been a rich source of original content from the beginning, many of which gets re-posted by fans on other websites. Meanwhile, whenever Mark Zuckerberg or Jack Dorsey spin up a new platform, it is dominated by communications interns and brand accounts, just treating it as a fifteenth place to dump their corporate promotions.
Note that many of the most successful monopoly platforms today (setting aside Facebook itself, the canonical monopoly platform) grew popular before their acquisitions. Instagram, WhatsApp, Twitch, YouTube, etc. I think it is impossible for a company like Google, Amazon, or Meta to come out and openly found a successful platform at this late date, and it has absolutely NOTHING to do with the technology. Even though Meta was in the right time and place to launch Threads, nobody apparently uses it aside from Burger King. Everyone migrated instead to BlueSky (which is perceived as independent for some reason) or, to a smaller degree, Mastodon.
The "problem" with TikTok is not their superior, inscrutable technology, but the fact that they are unwilling to be swallowed up like Instagram. Their intransigent Chinese owners don't understand that they're obligated to sell when a briefcase full of money is thrown in their face.