TikTok & It’s Domination over Social Media — Network Diffusion
In late 2019, a new social media application exploded on the United States social media scene. TikTok, a short video sharing application, became one of the most popular social media platforms among gen-z individuals. With over 2.3 billion global downloads and over 100 million users in the United States alone, TikTok has become one of the largest competitors to the previously dominant Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. The question everyone has been asking is how did TikTok become so popular? We saw the fall of Vine in late 2016 (a very similar platform to TikTok) and since then no short video sharing application has ever taken off. The popularity of TikTok can be examined through the lens of some key concepts which we learned in my Networks course at Cornell.
There are a few different components of TikTok which may be examined to really understand how it gained such popularity. One of these components is the followers/following community of TikTok. TikTok has following functionalities for all of their users. These users can follow their friends (who hopefully will follow them back) and allow them to interact with their friends by sending them videos, sharing them other users accounts, or by chatting through the application. This in turn, creates a community and allows for diffusion through multiple networks. Network diffusion is defined as the idea of ideas and behaviors passed around a large social network. TikTok has been able to do this through the friends functionalities. Once you are friends with one person, you are able to view and become friends with everyone in their network, and begin interacting with those individuals — this results in a diffusion.
Another TikTok feature which may explain its dominance is the for you page. The for you page is the landing page for all users, and leads to individuals scrolling through multiple videos which are generated by some sort of algorithm. We can understand the TikTok algorithm by understanding network clusters. Network clusters are defined as groups of individuals or nodes which are mostly only interconnected with each other and not as strongly connected with other clusters or nodes. The TikTok algorithm is meant to consistently show you videos which you may enjoy. For example, if you spend more time or interact with videos related to cooking, the algorithm is meant to keep showing you cooking videos. This is a form of clustering as individuals who are interested in cooking will only be shown videos related to cooking and not other videos and thus, keeping the user happy. This clustering keeps users satisfied and interested in the content on the for you page.
Overall, it is apparent that TikTok came to such popularity through understanding how social networks behave. TikTok has been able to use the concepts of network diffusion and clustering to its advantage and has continually exploited these understandings. Network diffusion has allowed TikTok to spread throughout all of the world and specifically, very quickly through the United States. Additionally, the algorithm which follows a clustering pattern has kept users engaged and happy throughout their experience. These two concepts paired together and the success of them have allowed TikTok to gain traction and I am sure it will continue to gain popularity throughout the next few years.
Sources used:
https://www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-app-online-website-video-sharing-2019-7#when-the-popular-video-app-vine-closed-in-october-2016-many-of-the-fresh-class-of-young-influencers-who-found-fame-by-posting-videos-turned-to-musically-to-continue-their-work-5
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/10/style/what-is-tik-tok.html