Where Did TikTok Come From?

But when you really think about it, why do they still have the feed? Why do you have to tap to get into the Story's experience? I think what TikTok ultimately did, there were a lot of competitors over the last 10 years that were doing similar products, similar sort of full-screen videos. I think what TiKTok really did was they designed the whole pr... See more

bytedance's first hit was an algorithmic news product called toutiao. then in may 2015, toutiao began experimenting with video on its front page. in just over a year, video clicks began exceeding article clicks. bytedance had multiple teams work on different video ideas. the winning concept eventually became tiktok.

TikTok’s For You tab serves an endless stream of short videos that algorithmically adapt to your interests, sorting the content most likely to engage you. Using it feels like having your mind read, because all you do is watch or skip, focus or ignore, a decision made too fast to be fully conscious. Individual videos or accounts matter less than cat... See more

the most important piece of technology Bytedance introduced to TikTok: the updated For You Page feed algorithm.

TikTok is a good reminder for the generational turnover of social products. While most social networks have not proven to be durable over time (Friendster, MySpace, Orkut, ....) the ones that take over generational shifts or new content types and formats have become massive companies.