Yesterday Instagram. Today TIkTok. Next? How the race for profit can destroy the value.

Instagram seems already old fashion. The new trendy social media is TikTok.  Brands have already colonized TikTok to attract audiences, and byers. But isn’t exactly that monetization that makes people run away from a Social Media Chanel, at the end?

I remember early days of Facebook (yeah, I m a little bit old), it was so funky, new, and it was only making us connect with old friends, ex boyfriends, or with someone we met during a trip who last a strong souvenir. And it became more sharing music, and videos. Then movie stars came to create their page, we were able to get close to them as never before.  Then all the “classic” media, newspapers also start to broadcast on fb. 

And then, came ad. And the possibility to purchase “likes”. That was no more natural, organic, spontaneous. We even today talk about an “organic” audience… 

It became a business. And often also a source of anxiety, with all that information on your timeline. Millennial turned their back to fb and left it. 

They left it for Instagram. The dreamed life was knocking at our screens thanks to Instagram. We were able to watch our favorite actress on a boat in a Island. What she was eating. Her lover. How she was dressing up. Her taste. We were dreaming thanks to people ( and their ego) that wanted to make us dream. Sharing their lifestyle and their ideas. Those influencers as leaders, about their way of life. 

And then, those same influencers has started to be paid to make advertisement. Instagram became a series of photo & videos of products and brand related by the stars we are following. 

Again, the magical aspect, the “non-profit” dream that Instagram was sharing was caught by monetization. Absolute profit. The dream became no longer spontaneous, neither natural. It became toxic. 

And now, TikTok. Those funny video and moments, that people are sharing. Spontaneously? I don’t know, but enough natural to make people having fun. 

Will it be caught also anytime soon by brands, products and services, and turned it down to a monetization? That’s on the way. 

The audience attracts brands, but that’s the monetization and their race for profit that drives this audience away.

In the beginning, TikTOk was used by young people as an outlet to express themselves through singing, dancing, comedy.A a social media platform for creating, sharing and discovering short music videos, think Karaoke for the digital age.

Why everything has to become a revenue, a profit, and each time invade a media, and destroys its original spirit, freedom and essence?

I am probably way too na?ve, but the result is concrete. The obsession of the systematic conversion of an asset into cash, can purely destroys that asset. And make it no more valuable. 

I wonder how long will it last for TikTok.

Rita BENIS. MintyMind.