TikTok Remix Culture

TikTok really is incredible. I don't do much in the way of social media, but it's better than any other big app I've ever used.

The other really cool use I've seen of this style of stitching is emergent songs. Here's an example: https://www.tiktok.com/@patwhoisnice/video/69158104300531089...

Also, it's the first social platform I've seen that has solved the new user growth problem - every user's first few videos are guaranteed hundreds of views no matter what. So good content naturally rises without having to be spammy/promote itself. Compare that to something like Twitch where growing a stream to even getting 30 regular viewers can take years of grinding and a ton of hustle.

The average follower count for even just a regular user who has maybe 1-2 good videos can be in the low thousands.

As someone who doesn't use Tiktok, how can Tiktok guarantee at least hundreds of views for all videos on their platform?

How do they entice users to click on these videos hundreds of times?

You don't click. When you open the app, the first thing you see is a "random" video (selected by their creepily good algorithm). Watched it or don't like it? Swipe through and the next video instantly starts. The app is good at figuring out which videos get engaged with and promotes these.

Though there is the functionality to go to user profiles and click videos, like on Instagram and such, it's not the main functionality of the app.

The other thing TikTok does well is that it removes choice. On YouTube you look at a dozen videos and think "Do I want to watch any of these, or look at another dozen recommendations?" It's kind of similar to picking something on Netflix. With TikTok you can just mindlessly "Next, next, next".

I am not one to get hooked on social media, but I found myself wasting time so easily on TikTok I had to delete it from my phone.