Thoughts on Tik Tok Information Distribution

How many daily sessions are Tik Tok users doing per day? I’ve heard Tik Tok users say they open the app more than 30 times a day. I found it surprising at first but on probing further users started saying they use it during breaks. “Break time. It’s Tik Tok time”. If the user behaviour is such, it has the following product implications:

1. Explore feed needs to change every single time user opens the app. It needs to blow them away every single time so that they keep coming back again and again. Tik Tok surfaces their best content when we’re on their Explore feed. We see content that’s liked by thousands of users. It’s impossible for us to encounter a video with zero likes on the explore tab.
2. Explore feed is about creating emotional impact and less about delivering live content. Tik Tok doesn’t deliver breaking news. Instead it optimises to show timeless content. Content that has high shelf life. That’s the reason Tik Tok doesn’t show when the video is posted/created. But if we dig into comments, we notice that videos are generally a week old. (Or the video itself might be older and they just show comments from last seven days).

Comments are as old as week.

If explore feed only surfaces best videos, how does new content get distribution?

• Similar videos: The last button on the video lands users on videos with similar audio. Videos on this surface are shown as a grid of thubnails. There isn’t any additional information about the videos. This is to collect unbiased user preference on them. This sort of decision can result in distribution predominantly being concentrated on good looking thumbnails.

Similar videos surface: Thumbnails without any additional information.

• Follow/Search Tabs: These surfaces as well drive distribution to new content. Users are landed on Follow tab using the red-dot mechanic. See below for screenshot of red-dot.

Red dot to land uses on Follow tab. Which also drives distribution to new videos.

What mechanic is Tik Tok using to retain users? To answer this we need to understand what’s unique to Tik Tok. What strategic value does it bring to users that other apps/networks don't? It turns out “similar sounding” videos is unique to Tik Tok. Don’t we like listening the song we love again and again? That I think is a key driver behind their retention.

This love for music makes me visit another person profile. If I like more of those videos, I start following the person. Once I become a fan of a few users, I ‘ve invested way too much to leave it. It’s possible that the fan-ship can migrate to friendship through private 1:1 messages. That could eventually turn into real-world relationship. But then most users would largely remain at level #1 of engagement. That’s watching lip sync videos on songs you love again and again.