[samhain]

"It's the product not the people"

Sorry, but social networks are made of people, without the people you don't have a product. He's trying to say that because important people create the community then that's the most important thing to the product in this case. Trying to say that the product creates the people makes no sense.

[CPLX]

But that’s the part that confused me. Has everyone commenting actually spent time using the product?

The whole notable thing about Tik Tok is that “important” people didn’t create the culture. It was created mostly by high school age kids sharing music and dance videos.

I guess the premise is that since Tik Tok deliberately sought that market... the success doesn’t count somehow... or something?

I mean like the entire planet is trying to market to that demographic. Nearly everyone fails. The distinguishing feature of Tik Tok here is that it’s a great well designed social product that’s fun to use and viral.

[meerita]

I've used it. Again, the UX/UI isn't strikingly enough to say, imho, "ok, this is a new concept". In fact, when they started the app looked differently, again, look at their first year or two and you will realise why they have success. It's not the UX, Snapchat had the worst UX/UI ever but their success was related to the mass of people they've appealed to.

[arbitrary_name]

>It's not the UX, Snapchat had the worst UX/UI ever but their success was related to the mass of people they've appealed to.

Sorry but this is just not a useful argument. Every product that targets this demographic is good because it targets this demographic? Face it, everyone is trying to appeal to these consumers, and most fail. Tik Tok did it very successfully, and merits some consideration for having done it in a crowded and competitive space, as did snapchat at some point in time.

[arghwhat]

The UX is optimized for insanely efficient mindless consumption.

Open, and you're immediately fed content with no interaction required. Not happy with what you see? Swipe.

[meerita]

Then if you think that, why don't you copy it and have the same effect? Because you can't and you will not get the same since isn't about UX but more about appealing to a certain sector of the population in the best moment.

[arghwhat]

If they had not managed to get the UX right, they would never have been able to appeal to that sector.

It targets an audience where any obstacle, which includes as much as a button press, might lead to them checking some other app instead.

[CPLX]

For the same reason I can’t create a stream of 140 character messages or write Stairway to Heaven again. Because someone already did the novel thing and captured the initial audience attracted by that novelty.

[meerita]

No, you've claimed the UX was part of the reason they've triumph. And that is not the point, again, is not about the song (most of the songs use the same notes), it's about appealing to a certain group of people in the right time and taken it over. They've started with videos, like Vine, then they moved on to musical.ly style for youngers, and they merged. That's how they started and gained traction until 2018 where they took it off

[thrwaway69]

I really wonder if I live in the same world at all. I have never come across a tiktok link for some reason. First time I heard of tiktok was from an American guy talking about how China is taking control via their social media apps. That was a few months ago.

[sixo]

I dled tiktok to try it, had no friends on there, and spent hours browsing for fun purely because of the enjoyability of the product. User-generated content obviously, but no "network" to speak of. It's closer to reddit than Instagram.

[jsywheb38]

>Sorry, but social networks are made of people, without the people you don't have a product.

This is an insane reply, nothing about that post made it sound like they thought otherwise.

>He's trying to say that because important people create the community then that's the most important thing to the product in this case.

That's not what the grandparent said at all. He was saying almost the opposite, that Tiktok owes its success to "...its strategy to take on the world with the freshest possible generation of users..." whom it wooed by offering a fresh social media environment, free of important people, where they wouldn't feel like they were "...competing against those who were already established."

Their core point was that TikTok's success was because of its marketing strategy, not because of its features, which is what the person you replied to was contesting. No one was arguing against whatever strawman you were building with quotes.