What Makes TikTok a Special App as It Faces a US Ban

ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok the special application, made a clear statement that it won’t sell the platform despite US legislation mandating its sale or facing a ban.

“ByteDance has no intentions of selling TikTok,” the company posted on its Toutiao account, a social media platform it operates. Recently, TikTok announced plans to legally contest the “unconstitutional” law.

The Chinese parent company denied reports from The Information that suggested TikTok’s potential US sale without its algorithm.

The Algo

ByteDance considers TikTok’s algorithm crucial to its operations and would opt to shut down the app instead of selling it, according to Reuters.

China’s revised export laws in 2020 grant approval rights over algorithm and source code exports, complicating any potential sale.

Before TikTok, many believed social connections were key to a successful app, like Meta’s Facebook and Instagram.

TikTok demonstrated that an algorithm driven by user interests could be more influential. Unlike Meta’s “social graph” approach, TikTok’s algorithm relies on “interest signals,” as CEO Shou Zi Chew and other executives have stated.

Other competing platforms have similar interest-based algorithms, but the effective video format enables TikTok to enhance the algorithm’s efficiency, stated Catalina Goanta, an associate professor at Utrecht University.

The Platform to Join

The unique feature of TikTok lays within its short video format, this format enriches the algorithm to become much more dynamic and withhold tracking changes in the preferences of the users’ interest over time, and as granular as what the user may prefer watching during the day.

Jason Fung, former head of TikTok’s gaming unit, stated that the short format of the video makes it easier for the company to learn about the preferences of the user than when the video is long.

“Because it’s in bite-size format, it is a short video, you’re able to collect data about a user’s preference a lot faster than YouTube, where maybe the average video is just less than 10 minutes long,” he said, “Imagine you’re collecting data about a user on average every 10 minutes versus every couple seconds.”

TikTok Playing the Psychological Game

TikTok is an application built for mobile devices meaning that it’s a go to application, giving it an advantage over other rival platforms that are opened on computer screens.

Being an early player in the short video market provided TikTok the special application with a significant head start, with Instagram following in its lead in 2020 with the introduction of Reels, followed by YouTube’s introduction of Shorts in 2021, tracking TikTok in terms of data and product development time.

The main hidden gem behind TikTok’s lead in the race isn’t really its all-in mobile accessibility, but rather its capacity to use users’ attention span based on their age. So, if TikTok doesn’t lock you of the application then you’re on the safe side. But this doesn’t mean that the platform does monitor your interaction with the application no matter your age. This factor is always applicable. Whether you’re a Gen-Z, Millennial, Baby-Boomer, or even just a Boomer, TikTok’s whole business model is based on observing and keeping track of users’ behavior with the app to feed its algorithmic behavior. Hence, making it far superior to its rivals.

Recent studies examining the age demographics of TikTok users reveal that a significant portion falls within the 18 to 34 ages. The attention span of 18+ year olds can range from 10 to 20 minutes. The longest TikTok video lasts for 10 minutes, indicating that TikTok encourages users to engage with the app in various ways, aiming to retain their interest instead of them growing weary and leaving, as often happens with other apps.

Kudos on your efforts, TikTok the special application. Now let’s see how the US will handle your next move. Will it cave to your refusal to surrender, or will ByteDance remove the app from the US market?

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