How TikTok’s Algorithm is Changing the Game

This is the second of three posts looking at how algorithms shape our media consumption. The first one was about Meta, and in the final posting here, I talk about what it all means, for the culture and our future.

How TikTok’s Algorithm is Changing the Game

TikTok is rewriting the rules and will define not only how a generation sees the world, but how they express themselves. To put TikTok’s success in perspective, they’ve become so dominant that Instagram had to update its algorithm to reward original native content over the TikTok videos their audience has been reposting on IG.

The product’s eating the industry as their ad revenue tripled in the past year and eMarketer now estimates they’ll overtake YouTube with $25 billion by 2025. The app is stickier than the rest, as the average US user is on TikTok 80 minutes a day, more than all Meta products combined, and the experience carries such gravity that it’s fundamentally changed how younger consumers start their journey. This past year a Google survey showed that 40% of Gen Z-ers look to TikTok for lunch ideas and related local search behaviors.?

But what’s more compelling than average time spent is the app’s effectiveness for connecting with its audience on deeper levels. Which is to say, as an advertising platform, TikTok’s product simply works better. TikTok commissioned a study that used brain imaging technology to show that their platform creates brand likeability 44% higher than the social media average, and personal relevance 15% higher. For detail memory, a dimension that’s linked to inspired purchase behavior, their TopView Ad format is 40% more effective than TV and 29% better than digital video. As TikTok would say, their audience is “fully leaned in.” So, did they really build a better mousetrap or are Meta and YouTube just aping their format with Reels and Shorts (respectively), because immersive, short-form and sound-on videos are of the moment?

The answer’s going to be a bit of both. If the format is of the moment, it’s because it’s TikTok that brought it to favor. Their algorithm is cleaner than Meta’s “everything and the kitchen sink”-style approach because where Meta’s been chasing community, TikTok is simply shooting for retention and time spent.?They don’t have to worry about building community because TikTok experiences are by-design shaped less by the user’s sense of community. They offer a more passive experience through their “For You” algorithm, which pushes content not based on what you choose, but how you behave (i.e., how you respond to their algo recommendations). Where Netflix and Spotify create decision fatigue with the endless river of content options, TikTok has delivered a perfectly passive yet equally satisfying experience. And by pushing a battery of shorter and more diversified videos, they can capture far more data points to advise what comes next.?

That same brain imaging study found that TikTok users engaged the app 10x a minute, which is twice what Meta sees. The TikTok experience is based on a “surprise and delight” premise where the users are eager to scroll and swipe because they know something better is right around the corner. And to ensure that’s the case, TikTok has built a strong app with libraries of free music clips, editing tools, camera effects and augmented-reality filters, populating the brand experience with simple content creation. But when we talk about the brand, we’re ultimately just talking about an algorithm which tries to get people addicted rather than giving them what they really want.?

The current media story on TikTok is all about their TikTok’s Chinese ownership. The government’s raised suspicions of data privacy and spyware while the media has their own motive to push these fears since they’re hemorrhaging their own engagement with Millennials and Gen-Z. It’s true the Chinese government acquired a small stake (1%) and board seat in a subsidiary of TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, but by all accounts, that subsidiary doesn’t actually govern this product and TikTok has pledged to keep US audience data separate from their Chinese operations.?There are certainly instances of censorship on TikTok, but they’re typically within the guidelines for what the PRC pushes on their own people, and as skilled as China’s proven to be with surveillance, gaining influence through propaganda and squashing dissent… there’s nothing inherently sinister about how TikTok governs or pushes content onto its offshore audiences.?

The truth is that much of this apprehension and paranoia comes from Meta, which hired Republican lobbyists to smear TikTok on Capitol Hill as a “real threat” to America’s teens.?The simple fact remains that TikTok’s platform hasn’t been deliberately gamed for misinformation in the same way that Meta’s has been for so many years. Which is to say that as of yet, TikTok hasn’t done anything to outright tamper with our democracy.

Ultimately these concerns seem to be unfounded for now. While we’re stressing the consequence of giving TikTok our data from simple call-response interactions, what we should be talking about, even obsessing about, is how TikTok is completely rewiring the minds of a generation with quick hits of dopamine. It shapes our mood and memory, our ability to sleep, learn, and our capacity to concentrate. That Gen-Z would sooner give up their video streaming apps than TikTok tells us how urgently we need to understand this app and the culture it’s shaping. Because as TikTok eats every other media company, its hold on our children won’t abate any time soon.