The Rise of TikTok and Understanding Its Parent Company ByteDance
turner.substack.com
In November of 2017, Bytedance acquired Musical.ly for $1 billion. In August of 2018, Bytedance officially rebranded Musical.ly and TikTok into one app. Shortly after, ByteDance raised $3 billion and was valued at ~$75 billion. Analysts estimate its 2019 revenue was anywhere from
Agree that TikTok’s editing tools are leaps and bounds ahead of any video app I’ve seen, it’s so easy to be creative there. The top YouTubers pay serious $ for top-tier editors, some of which have built their own brands from doing this (eg TeaWap has 750k subs). Excited to see more product investments here, especially in longer form video. Quibi has no chance to compete with them imo, even with a Hollywood budget.
Re: education, I’ve done a bit of digging into their investments here. They’re experimenting with 1:1 (GoGoKid as mentioned), small class size (mzreading.com) and large class size (daliketang.com). They each have their challenges: 1:1 hasn’t been very profitable, large class size doesn’t scale well for student experience, and small class size has pain points around teacher hiring/training at scale. Curious to learn what they do next here.
TikTok has shown that by building a recommendation system that surfaces the best content globally rather than within your local graph, they can 1. entertain users for longer than anyone else and 2. help (good/new) creators get unmatched distribution.
By deprioritizing the social graph though, the views, likes, and other traditional metrics for creators are much higher variance - what do you think are the implications of this on creator monetization? E.g., influencer marketing is not going to work on TikTok the same way it does on IG
HiTurner, thanks for the deep analysis! It is so great to finally see an article on TikTok and Toutiao from more well-rounded perspectives. What's your opinion on the similarities and differences between Mark Zuckerberg and Zhang Yiming? The Chinese media compares them quite often but I have not yet seen the Western media describes it that way.
At Almeda University, I work as a Professional Researcher. As a highly curious and analytical person, I am adept at establishing and implementing techniques, assisting with data gathering, and interpreting research findings about side hustles 2023, businesses, <a href="https://technohigher.com/">techno higher</a>, and online earning I have specialized as a doctorate in human resources. I am very excited about the opportunity to work for Almeda University to investigate the truth behind controversies in the world, business entrepreneurship, and small businesses.
Great article, According to studies, a lot of people struggle to obtain bank loans. The applicant finds it difficult to [url=https://cashappscontact.com/blog/cash-app-loan] borrow money [/url] from banks and credit unions due to higher interest rates, challenging terms and conditions, and complicated procedures.
Tolle Arbeit für die Veröffentlichung einer so nützlichen Website. Ihr Weblog ist nicht nur nützlich, sondern auch sehr kreativ. Ihre Arbeit ist so gut, dass ich mag, dass Ihre Artikel, die Sie schreiben, so klar sind. Ich schätze Sie. Ihre Arbeit ist so gut. Ich mag Ihre Artikel, die Sie schreiben. Ihr Schreiben ist so klar. Ich mochte es, dass Sie ein großartiger Autor sind. Ich schätze Ihre Workr-Arbeit
Love this deep dive - learned a lot.
Agree that TikTok’s editing tools are leaps and bounds ahead of any video app I’ve seen, it’s so easy to be creative there. The top YouTubers pay serious $ for top-tier editors, some of which have built their own brands from doing this (eg TeaWap has 750k subs). Excited to see more product investments here, especially in longer form video. Quibi has no chance to compete with them imo, even with a Hollywood budget.
Re: education, I’ve done a bit of digging into their investments here. They’re experimenting with 1:1 (GoGoKid as mentioned), small class size (mzreading.com) and large class size (daliketang.com). They each have their challenges: 1:1 hasn’t been very profitable, large class size doesn’t scale well for student experience, and small class size has pain points around teacher hiring/training at scale. Curious to learn what they do next here.
1 billion MAU, NOT DAU, please double check it~
Awesome summary Turner!
TikTok has shown that by building a recommendation system that surfaces the best content globally rather than within your local graph, they can 1. entertain users for longer than anyone else and 2. help (good/new) creators get unmatched distribution.
By deprioritizing the social graph though, the views, likes, and other traditional metrics for creators are much higher variance - what do you think are the implications of this on creator monetization? E.g., influencer marketing is not going to work on TikTok the same way it does on IG
Can we trust the numbers of DAU given by tiktok, or is it another scam like Luckin coffee!
HiTurner, thanks for the deep analysis! It is so great to finally see an article on TikTok and Toutiao from more well-rounded perspectives. What's your opinion on the similarities and differences between Mark Zuckerberg and Zhang Yiming? The Chinese media compares them quite often but I have not yet seen the Western media describes it that way.
this is such a good piece of writing. thank you!
Awesome deep dive about Tik Tok! The research you've done is really impressive!!!
One of the best TikTok deep dives I have read. Great writing and analysis. Thank you.
Super nice info.
Thank you for putting this together.
Amazing Deep Dive! Thank you!
This is great analysis... well researched and presented... could be an oped any day
This is awesome - thank you for writing and posting!
At Almeda University, I work as a Professional Researcher. As a highly curious and analytical person, I am adept at establishing and implementing techniques, assisting with data gathering, and interpreting research findings about side hustles 2023, businesses, <a href="https://technohigher.com/">techno higher</a>, and online earning I have specialized as a doctorate in human resources. I am very excited about the opportunity to work for Almeda University to investigate the truth behind controversies in the world, business entrepreneurship, and small businesses.
Great article, According to studies, a lot of people struggle to obtain bank loans. The applicant finds it difficult to [url=https://cashappscontact.com/blog/cash-app-loan] borrow money [/url] from banks and credit unions due to higher interest rates, challenging terms and conditions, and complicated procedures.
Tolle Arbeit für die Veröffentlichung einer so nützlichen Website. Ihr Weblog ist nicht nur nützlich, sondern auch sehr kreativ. Ihre Arbeit ist so gut, dass ich mag, dass Ihre Artikel, die Sie schreiben, so klar sind. Ich schätze Sie. Ihre Arbeit ist so gut. Ich mag Ihre Artikel, die Sie schreiben. Ihr Schreiben ist so klar. Ich mochte es, dass Sie ein großartiger Autor sind. Ich schätze Ihre Workr-Arbeit
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