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Sep 26, 2023 9:32 PM
47minute video on tiktok which I will summarize into the main points
- Headlines feature for showing relevant news used an algorithm to determine what to show and got users spending on average 74minutes per day on their site
- Took the same algorithm and applied it to short form video content
5 Part Plan to get creators onto their app
#1 - Addictive video algorithm is useless if you don’t have people creating content on your platform. So Step #1 was lowering the barrier to entry. So they wanted to make it super easy to create content with built in editing features. Up till their creator you needed to
- Know how to create video editing software
- Know how to create thumbnails
- And countless other things which added a lot of friction to the launch process for new creators to get started
- So they made it easy to apply music, filters, etc to your video
Step 2: Challenges
- The ice bucket challenge was inspiration for how that if they created challenges within the app that were easy for other people to replicate like a certain dance - then people didn’t need to think about making original creative content they could just copy a trend - creates community around joining in on a challenge.
Step 3: Give them a taste of fame
- They made new influencers videos blow up to give them a taste of winning the lottery
- By sharing the love around a lot of creators it attracted a lot more people wanting to make videos for the app - was like a new gold rush for everyone who was late on the other social media channels
- By giving them this hit of fame it encouraged creators to recruit more people to join the app by telling their audience to come follow them on tiktok
STEP 4: Bribe the top talent
- The quality of the content was low with all of the new creators on the platform
- They messaged influencers with big followings on other platforms and paid them to come and post on their app
- Went to art schools to find “Good looking creative students” and promised to make them famous on tiktok
- Once they had higher quality content they manipulated their algorithm to try to influence people’s perceptions about how good the content on the platform was.
STEP 5: Nurture relationships
- They assigned creators account managers who would help them with school assignments and relationship issues to make sure their users were able to create lots of content
Their never ending cycle of improvement
They encouraged people to post on other platforms because they had a watermark in the corner of every app which was the ultimate free publicity
