How The TikTok Algorithm Works (and why its like YouTube)
TikTok just revealed what’s under the hood with their algorithm 🤯 🤯 🤯
Rumors have run rampant for a long time. Many speculated TikTok was actively putting their thumb on the scales to promote specific creators. In an effort to dispel the misinformation TikTok (likely) felt compelled to share details in a blog post, “How TikTok recommends videos #ForYou”.
HOW THE ALGORITHM WORKS
The TLDR is that TikTok curates each users ‘For You’ feed based off each users preference. They determine those preferences and make content recommendations based on several factors, including:
✳️ User Interactions — They take into account who you follow, like, share, comment, engage with, and even the content you create.
✳️ Video Information — The look at all aspects of the content including captions, sounds, and hashtags.
✳️ Device and account settings — like your language preference, country setting, and device type. According to TikTok, these are the least important factors in determining content recommendations.
WHY ITS LIKE YOUTUBE
On most platforms your feed is all about who you follow. On TikTok who you follow hardly matters at all — your default feed is the ‘For You’ stream. It’s comprised of algorithmically selected content. YouTube’s homepage works the same.
When you’re logged in the recommendations are largely based on your watch history. YouTube doesn’t default to a feed of the latest videos from channels you’re a subscriber of.
The prioritization of watch time is another similarity.
According to TikTok when a user finishes watching a longer video from beginning to end it would receive greater weight than a weak indicator, such as whether the video’s viewer and creator are both in the same country.” From what we know about YouTube’s algorithm (ie the P-score) popularity, or how much watch time their content brings in is also heavily weighted.
THE IMPLICATIONS
TikTok’s algorithm is better suited for emerging creators. Discovery is at the core of the user experience and the feed isn’t reliant solely on who you follow. If your content is good (ie drives up watch time and engagement) they’ll promote the TikTok.
This is likely a big contributor to the fact that it seems like there are new TikTok stars going ‘viral’ each week.
