![]() ![]() Sweet crude like the world has never seen, ready to be algorithmically refined into rocket fuel. That’s 26 “episodes” per session, with each episode generating multiple microsignals: whether you scrolled past a video, paused it, re-watched it, liked it, commented on it, shared it, and followed the creator, plus how long you watched before moving on. Then there’s TikTok, where the average session lasts 11 minutes and the video length is around 25 seconds. But on a per-session basis, when we watch an average of two episodes, the number of signals registered from a typical user is likely no greater than six - so the refining process is slow, arduous work. In aggregate, that data set can be refined into a powerful recommendation algorithm. Netflix gets signals directly, but just a few: what you watch, how long you watch, and whether you recommend the program. ![]() (Note: Re-reading the last sentence, I have to wonder what the half-life of edibles is.) Anyway, if data is the new oil, algorithms are the refineries, and signals make the oil lighter, sweeter, and more valuable.Ĭable is heavy, high-sulfur-content crude, as its only signals are weekly Nielsen ratings reports. Signals are the mallets and chisels that bring form and utility to the algo. But data on its own is a shapeless block. You can sell data to advertisers to inform algorithms so their products and services are more attractive and addictive. Signal Liquidityįacebook and Google also are using a new armament in their business war: data. The new occupant’s ascent to the Iron Throne was financed with a different currency - not monthly subscriptions or cable packages, but attention. The gatekeepers of the content kingdom were being vanquished while we obsessed over subscriber growth at Disney+. “Video-based social media” was the Trojan horse. We’ve been watching the streaming wars for the past few years, but we were looking in the wrong place. And at its last valuation event, ByteDance was valued at, wait for it … $360 billion. Six months ago Netflix was worth more than $300 billion - today it’s at $80 billion. ![]() Over the past four years, ByteDance (parent company of TikTok) has gone from half the revenue of the original gangster of streaming to double. TikTok is a streaming platform, and the testicles being kicked over and over by TikTok belong to another company, Netflix. You can like, comment, and share, but these features exist as leverage points for one thing: watching videos. TikTok bills itself as a social media company, and the app is disrupting Meta by virtue of usurping attention. TikTok has 1.6 billion monthly active users - more than Twitter, Snapchat, and LinkedIn combined. Downloaded more often than any other app for each of the past five quarters, it was the world’s most visited site in 2021. TikTok now commands more attention per user than Facebook and Instagram combined. Something about the stillness, the lying on his side.Įlon Musk’s manic toggling between shit-posting and falsehoods have distracted us from what is the ascendant tech firm of 2022. My head filled with images of opium dens in China. “We have to make him stop, pull him out, every time,” his dad said. No signs of life other than his open eyes and an occasional finger swipe. With his arm extended in front of him cradling his phone, he … went vacant. As we were wrapping lunch one day, my friend said, “Watch this.” His 11-year-old son walked to the couch and lay on his side. The secret of TikTok’s success is how it eliminates the burden of consumer choice with a continuous stream of videos curated for you
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