[user00012-ab]

Are you sure this isn't more of the Medium model, where they can show you a bunch of new people all the time, but you'll never actually follow them or see them ever again (just another nebulous medium post)? So really the only person that profits in this model is the company hosting the content.

[fragmede]

That happens with TikTok, but it’s a result of the app’s UX. (It seems intentional, but that’s conjecture.) Following a user whose video you like is easy, but the app defaults to the “For You“ page, which presents videos as picked by an algorithm. That algorithm doesn’t just iterate over all the videos out of a user’s followed artists, leading to the effect on creators mentioned. I may never see an artist’s new content if it doesn’t surface via the For You page.

[fakedang]

Exactly. I think their algorithm explanation explicitly mentioned giving less weightage for follower counts and users following a particular creator. I'll not be surprised if the following feature is mostly for satisfying creator egos (thus helping to keep them on the platform) and not for the algorithm itself.

One excellent feature of the algorithm is how it ties user feedback to the type of content shown and not to the creator of the content, thus giving better recommendations.