TikTok has faced a fair amount of scrutiny, and for good reason. Despite the app's ballooning usage across the globe, there's still a lot that we don't know about how the company hooks its users and keeps them coming back for more.
Thanks to a new report from the New York Times, we got our first glimpse.
The Times didn't give us a copy of the document, which was called "TikTok 101," and Gizmodo couldn't find a copy to confirm the details. A TikTok spokesman said the document was meant to explain how the platform works to less tech savvy employees. One of the employees who leaked the document to the paper was upset by the platform's tendency to push users towards "sad" content that might depress users.
The Times description of the doc doesn't mention any of the disturbing content that might be found on its users' feeds. It does talk about some math. Some lawmakers might think that the way to make an algorithm is with arcane bits of black magic. Instead, these algorithms are designed to turn your on-platform behavior into a series of figures and use those figures to inform the content that should be on your feed.
Where those figures come from is the real question. A recent report from the Wall Street Journal found that TikTok relies on the amount of time you spend watching a video to make its recommendation systems.
According to third-party analyses, if you stick through a given clip to the end, you'll get more of that kind of content.
According to the doc reviewed by the Times, TikTok uses more than just watch time. The number of likes and comments a video has, how long that video is, and whether that video was played by a user are all taken into account by the algo. There is an equation for the math nerds.
Vcomment + Eplaytime + Pplay X Vplay.
The recommender system gives scores to all the videos based on the equation, and returns users videos with the highest scores, according to a document. The equation shown in this doc is very easy to understand. The logic behind the equation in use is the same as the equation in use.
It's not surprising that TikTok is chasing growth, just like every other major social platform. The Times said that the company's ultimate goal is to add daily active users, which is why the platform is designed to keep users coming back. Smith writes.
Retention and time spent are two closely related metrics in the stream of videos it serves. The app wants to keep you there as long as possible. The experience is sometimes described as an addiction, but also recalls a criticism of pop culture.
The Times is correct. Critics in the '90s were worried about tv viewers becoming addicted to their devices, and critics in the '80s were worried about video game addiction. Like the social media platforms of today, those technologies were built to keep users watching, gaming, and just generally spending more time in front of a screen. More time spent on streaming TV and playing games means more money in the pockets of the streaming and gaming giants behind those forms of the media, the same way more time spent on TikTok means more money for TikTok.
There is nothing sinister or incomprehensible about the TikTok recommendation algorithm outlined in the document. There are plenty of reasons that the company raises eyebrows among tech critics, and that doesn't mean we need to stop being concerned. It serves as a good reminder to stop treating the mathematical models that turn online behavior into offline profit like something out of a horror movie.
