TikTok has a feature where you can find videos from the people you follow, but what really sets TikTok apart is its feed called "For You." Like other social media platforms, TikTok is driven by artificial intelligence (AI). TikTok’s AI, similar to other social media platforms, shows videos based on which ones you watch all the way through, like, and comment on. However, TikTok's "For You" feed is unique because it is entirely driven by a "recommendation engine."
When you look at platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, even though they are increasingly AI-driven, especially YouTube, they still rely on users navigating through the site to choose the content they want to interact with. On TikTok, there are no active choices to be made by the user; the content displayed is entirely based on the AI’s algorithm.
Soundcharts argues that another significant factor in TikTok’s success is its algorithm, which differs from other social media platforms by fostering a many-to-many form of communication. All social media platforms operate on the principle that the more people use the platform, the more valuable it becomes, and the more active the users, the better. On TikTok, almost half of the users also upload videos, meaning there are far more content creators on the platform than on any other, a trend that TikTok capitalizes on. One reason for this could be the ease of uploading content, and another could be the rapid spread of trends, which we’ll get into later.
The major social media platforms (Facebook, YouTube, Instagram) are more or less based on a one-to-many form of communication. For example, when you upload a video on Facebook, it will be shown to a portion of your followers and those who already know you, unless you pay to promote the post.
So how does TikTok actually work in practice?
You start by setting up your account, where you can choose some interests that will guide your feed. You can also skip this step and be shown videos that have generally had the most reach on the platform. The more time you spend on the app, the more it will tailor the content to match your behavior on the site, meaning what you watch the most.
On Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, your content only reaches your friends or people who share it. On TikTok, when you upload a video, it’s shared with a small "test group" selected by TikTok. Depending on how well the video is received—liked, shared, commented on, etc.—by this group, the video is then shared with a larger group on TikTok. You can influence who your videos are sent to by using hashtags, categories, and possibly effects introduced by TikTok on their platform. This process continues until you either go viral or get lost in the noise of all the other content being shared. This process is triggered every time someone uploads a video, for every single video.
This means that on TikTok, it’s easier to break out of your own social circles and reach a larger audience if you follow TikTok’s rules. This is why challenges and memes are so popular—both the sender and the receiver benefit from them. For example, if a song is becoming popular, other users who upload videos with that song will also get more views. The algorithm turns the receiver into the sender, through a shared trend. Lil Nas X also mentioned to the New York Times that his song was almost stagnant before he posted it on TikTok, and it was precisely because people embraced the song and uploaded their own videos with "Old Town Road" that it spread.