this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2025
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48
TikTok creators mourn app where 'overnight' success is possible (www.bbc.com)
submitted 15 hours ago by misk@sopuli.xyz to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] Breve@pawb.social 12 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

I'm wondering how much of TikTok is actually authentic. Like when a video gets hundreds of views and likes, is TikTok padding those numbers to make users feel like they are "viral" just to stay on the platform? Even if TikTok isn't directly doing it, how many are from bot farms just trying to "look normal" by having their sock puppets engage with "normal" videos before using them to push their desired narratives?

Maybe I should start a social network with a mysterious black box algorithm that is really just a random number generator that only goes up. πŸ€”

[–] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 3 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

I imagine that people have fucked around to find out how to game the system and know more or less exactly how the thing actually works. People do it everywhere else. Shit, dudes on YouTube like The Spiffing Brit make entire videos about how the system works and how you can exploit it.

[–] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 16 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (2 children)

I think those β€žsuccess storiesβ€œ were always at least a little fabricated by the algorithm that somewhat randomly pushed a selected few lucky users immensely just to show the rest how you can become a media sensation overnight. It gives the platform free publicity as opposed to distributing visibility more evenly. Besides the ad revenue on TikTok is almost non existent even compared to Youtube. It was never a platform that you could realistically become successful with even if you got views.

[–] Lila_Uraraka@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 5 hours ago

It literally has more registered users than there were registered for the US presidential election

[–] misk@sopuli.xyz 1 points 6 hours ago

Besides the ad revenue on TikTok is almost non existent even compared to Youtube. It was never a platform that you could realistically become successful with even if you got views.

If TikTok was widely known for being bad for making money then maybe it pulled some people who didn’t care about money like on old YouTube.

[–] SplashJackson@lemmy.ca 19 points 7 hours ago

Jesus Christ I'm tired of hearing about this TikTok bullshit every goddamn day

[–] Soulifix@kbin.melroy.org 12 points 7 hours ago

I've come from an era of the internet where - you're not supposed to be internet famous. That's like a frowned upon thing where people think you lead a loser life because you got infamous on the internet. Now people are fretting about how many views they get.

[–] sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 21 points 9 hours ago

They miss the early phase of enshittification. The reason a normal person could get 50 million views in 24 hours is because the tiktok office had a way to juice the algorithm for specific videos and show it to everybody. And they were just doing this for free. Just like Facebook used to show content to people organically. Eventually tiktok starts selling ads and maximizing value, and then you have to pay for the success they used to give for free.

Wait if tiktok is a private company, maybe it wouldn't do that exactly the same way as Facebook and Google

[–] futatorius@lemm.ee 2 points 6 hours ago

Useless, brainless time-wasters, the lot of them.

[–] heavydust@sh.itjust.works 24 points 12 hours ago (3 children)

success, content

Making shitty videos is a stupid hobby, not a job.

[–] Nima@leminal.space 23 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

what's with this curmudgeon type shit? their livelihood is at risk. just because you're not part of the ecosystem doesn't mean you need to dismiss a way to make money thats worked for quite a few people.

[–] futatorius@lemm.ee 3 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (1 children)

They're lice riding on the back of a large and very efficient predator.

Nothing they can do on that platform benefits humankind, though it might funnel some money in the "creators'" direction. They're no better than the teenagers that run bindles of smack from the trap house to the junkie for a couple of bucks.

[–] Nima@leminal.space 3 points 2 hours ago

this is a social media app that creators can make videos on. i think you're overreacting just a bit, man.

its not the end of the world. people making content that people enjoy on a video app isn't going to ruin the youth.

relax.

[–] themurphy@lemmy.ml 27 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

You can say the same about the whole entertainment industry then. You just prefer other things than short form, visual content.

[–] heavydust@sh.itjust.works 5 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

I cannot say that a great movie is equivalent to a meme in an animated GIF.

[–] state_electrician@discuss.tchncs.de 0 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Nobody is saying that. But I will take a great meme over a shitty movie any day.

[–] heavydust@sh.itjust.works -1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

Nobody is saying that

Well, that other guy was saying this so...

[–] state_electrician@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

No, they did not. All I saw was a statement that people making a living on sites like TikTok or YouTube are also part of the entertainment industry. Which is just a fact. Whether you like short form content on these sites or not doesn't change that fact.

[–] heavydust@sh.itjust.works 0 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

part of the entertainment industry. Which is just a fact

Your facts are yours only, and laughable too. Get a job, something that is the tiniest bit useful. But filling the internet with your inane thoughts is definitely not a job, nor does it belong in a forum dedicated to technology. The mere "fact" that any moron can pretend to have a job by putting 30 seconds videos in the latest fad is disgusting and unworthy of humanity.

Woops, I already spent more time answering your post than those idiots have spent filming themselves spewing what idiotic thoughts came out of their brains. Am I an influencer now?

[–] skulblaka@sh.itjust.works 0 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Am I an influencer now?

You aren't making any money from it, so, no.

Like it or not, people make a living doing this.

[–] heavydust@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 hours ago

people make a living doing this

I know. The tiktok ban may fix that for some time hopefully.

[–] Chozo@fedia.io 10 points 9 hours ago

If it pays the bills for those people, what difference does it make? Other than "me no likey", that is?

[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 11 points 10 hours ago

Morons who should have been doing that in the first place. You never want all your content and success to hinge on the whim's on one corporation.

[–] asbestos@lemmy.world 8 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago)

Oh no
anyways

[–] biggerbogboy@sh.itjust.works -1 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 32 minutes ago) (3 children)

~~Have people somehow forgotten that VPNs exist? Like millions are moving to rednote but the easier way is to literally just, at minimum, get a shitty free VPN, and still have access to tiktok.~~

~~Personally tho, I'd probably opt for a cloud server VPN if I really needed one.~~

Edit: this was a stupid take, I forgot the app would be removed from devices and that it will cause inconvenience.

[–] ahal@lemmy.ca 24 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

You vastly overestimate the average person's technical ability.

[–] biggerbogboy@sh.itjust.works -2 points 9 hours ago

Honestly, true. I must be underestimating how tired I am and overestimating how much brain power I got left because, I must say, I barely had a single thought when typing that.

[–] superkret@feddit.org 7 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Any roadblock in using a social media will turn off 90% of the users.
Which means the creators will be gone, too.
Sure, you could connect to it via VPN, but most of the content you like won't be there anymore.

[–] biggerbogboy@sh.itjust.works 2 points 33 minutes ago

I fully agree with that, and I was wrong in assuming that it'd be very simple. In my country, we only got online piracy firewalled, so I don't have experience with apps or other kinds of websites getting banned, and somehow I assumed that most of the demographics of a service would try and use it a different way just like how we use VPNs to hop on the pirate bays, but that isn't the case.

[–] shoulderoforion@fedia.io 3 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

VPN's are grand, if you're using a PC, if you're using a smartphone the app is about to be dissapeared, also if your bag is monetization, good luck getting a bank to accept digital deposits from TikTok

[–] futatorius@lemm.ee -1 points 5 hours ago

Good, they can do something else to regain their sense of self-worth, such as working the glory hole in a truck stop in Bakersfield.

[–] biggerbogboy@sh.itjust.works 0 points 9 hours ago

Oh right, I somehow didn't think they'd remove the app at first, I thought they'd just firewall it or smthn. The monitisation part also makes a lot of sense too. Honestly I don't have even the smallest experience with witnessing anything online get banned in my country apart from piracy.