INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Many TikTok videos don&t start from scratch, so neither can its competitors
TikTok is all about remixes where users shoot a new video to recontextualize audio pulled from someone else clip, or riff on an existing
That only works because TikTok had time to build up an immense armory of content to draw inspiration from.
Creators will find themselves
unequipped trying to get started on TikTok copycats including Facebook Lasso, and Instagram Reels which is testing in Brazil
Direct competitors like Triller and Dubsmash are racing to build up their archives
YouTube Shorts, which The Information today reported is in development, only has a shot if Google lets users harness the 5 billion videos
people already watch on YouTube each day.
This is the power of what I call &content network effect&: Each piece of content adds value to the
That TikTok.
You&re likely familiar with traditional network effect — ‘a phenomenon whereby a product or service gains additional
value as more people use it.& It not just the network itself that gains value, as the value delivered to each user increases too
Today top social networks are shining examples
The more people there are on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, the more people you can connect to, and the more material their relevance
algorithms can draw on to fill your feeds.
If you had to choose between using two identical social networks, you&re probably going to pick
the one with more friends or creators already onboard
Network effects raise the switching cost of moving to a different network
Even if it has better features, fewer ads, or less misinformation and bullying, you&re unlikely to leave a robust network behind and decamp
That makes scaled social networks difficult to Disrupt
All the top ones have been around for almost a decade or more.
Except for TikTok
The Chinese music/video app has managed to demonstrate a new concept of &content network effect&
In its case, each video uploaded to the app makes every future potential video more valuable
That because all the content on TikTok serves as remix fodder for the rest
Every song, dance, joke, prank, and monologue generates resources for other creators to exploit
It a bottomless well of inspiration.
Remixability, the ultimate creative tool
TikTok productizes remix culture by making it easy to &use
Tap the audio button on any video and it becomes yours
Click through and you&ll see all the other videos that use it
TikTok even offers a whole search engine for sorting through sounds by categories like Trending, Greatest Hits, Love, Gaming, and travel
Sometimes remixes are based on an idea rather than an audio
#FlipTheSwitch sees couples instantly swapping clothes when the light flicks off, and has collected over 3.6 billion videos across over
500,000 remixed versions of the video.
You can even duet with the original creator, sharing your video and theirs side-by-side
A solo performance becomes a chorus as more duets are hitched together
Meanwhile, remixes of remixes of remixes provide an esoteric reward for hardcore users who recognize how a gag has evolved or spiraled into
absurdity.
Other apps in the past have spawned video responses, hashtags, quote-tweets, surveys, and chain letters and other ways for pieces
of content to interact or iterate
And there always been parodies
But TikTok proves the power of forging a social app with content network effect at its core.
Facilitating remixes offers a way to lower the
bar for producing user generated content
You&d don&t have to be astoundingly creative or original to make something entertaining
Each individual life experiences inform their perspective that could let them interpret an idea in a new way.
What began with someone
ripping audio of two people chanting &don&t be Suspicious, don&t be suspicious& while sneaking through a graveyard in TV show Parks - Recs
led to people lipsyncing it while trying to escape their infant room without waking them up, leaving the house wearing clothes they stole
from their sister closet, trying to keep a llama as a pet, and photoshopping themselves to look taller
Unless someone already done the work to record an audio clip, there nothing to inspire and enable others to put their spin on it.
TikTok
archive vs the world
That why I wrote that Mark Zuckerberg misunderstands the huge threat of TikTok after the CEO told Facebook staff that
&I kind of think about TikTok as if it were Explore for Stories&
Facebook and Instagram found massive success cloning Snapchat Stories because all they had to do was copy its features
Stories are autobiographical life vlogging
All you need are the creative tools, which Instagram and Facebook rebuilt, and people to share to, which the apps had billions
of.
Zuckerberg misunderstands the huge threat of TikTok
But TikTok isn&t about sharing what you&re up to like Stories that typically start
from scratch since each user life is different
It micro-entertainment powered by content network effect
If TikTok competitors give people the same video recording features and distribution potential, they&ll still be missing the archive of
source material.
Facebook Lasso looks just like TikTok but it failed to gain steam since launching in November 2018
Instagram Reels smartly copies TikTok remixing tools, but if the Brazilian tests go well and it eventually launches in English, it will
start out flat footed.
When YouTube launches Shorts, as The Information Alex Heath and Jessica Toonkel report it planning to do before
the end of the year, it will be buried inside its main app
That could make it impossible to compete with a dedicated app like TikTok that opens straight to its For You page
Its one saving grace would be if YouTube unlocks its entire database of videos for remixing.
Thanks to its position as the default place to
host videos and its experience with searchability that Facebook and Instagram lack, YouTube Shorts could at least have all the ingredients
But given YouTube non-stop failures in social with everything from Google+ to YouTube Stories to its dozen deadpooled messaging apps, it may
not have the chef skills necessary to combine them.
[Postscript: Or maybe YouTube will be worse at cloning TikTok than anyone
Record labels and YouTube should understand that short videos promote rather than pirate music, as TikTok propelling Lil Nas X and many
other musicians up the charts prove
But if YouTube ruthlessly applies Content ID and takes down Shorts with unauthorized audio, the feature is dead in the water.]
Other social
networks should consider how the concept applies to them
Could Facebook turn your friends& photos into collage materials? Could Instagram let you share themed collections of your favorite posts?
Remix culture isn&t going away, so neither will the value of fostering content network effects
With video consumption outpacing professional production, remixes are how the world will stay entertained and how amateurs can contribute
creations worthy of going viral.
