Mark Zuckerberg Admits Failed Facing TikTok

Picture: l’indro

Techspace - Mark Zuckerberg has yet to acknowledge his defeat in the October 2022 social media business competition against TikTok. The founder of META, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, appears to be delighted to admit that he was negligent in anticipating his competitors, which is unusual for someone who frequently uses a lively debate in the face of business competition.

Zuckerberg sees TikTok as a formidable competitor. Competitors who are fearless in facing Facebook as the dominant social media platform. The world conglomerate ranked 12th on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, acknowledged in an interview that its business needed to be faster to respond to TikTok's positive trend.

The statement by Zuckerberg can be interpreted as a representation of his frustration with the META corporation's various pressures. He is beginning with the effects of multiple incidents like the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Until the Mateverse megaproject is completed or Zuckerberg is working on a well-thought-out strategy to compete with the competition for the throne as the king of social media.

TikTok's consistency in the digital platform industry is said to be a significant challenge, although Facebook's active users were close to 3 billion in the third quarter of 2022. There were fewer users, and the share price dropped by more than 56% in the same year.

Teenagers in the United States have continued to decline in their home country by 13% since 2019. Active Facebook users who no longer create accounts believe that the 2004-founded platform has lost its appeal.

Compared to Facebook and Instagram, TikTok, pioneered by Zhang Yiming, offers a different experience from the social media that first existed. Under the auspices of ByteDance, this platform provides content creation for users to investigate their passions.

Videos of dancing and lipsync to challenges, all light fun due to their short duration, make up most of the content. It also helps creators by making content creation simpler. Current features, including music that can be played as a background and various filters and effects, provide support for the platform. This is what draws active users to TikTok, most of whom are members of the boomer generation.

TikTok, like Instagram and Youtube, participates in emerging new celebrities by producing content with a large following. Khabar Lame is one of the TikTokers—TikTok content creators comparable to celebrities and YouTubers—with 143.1 million followers worldwide.

META has taken several tactical steps to anticipate TikTok's movement and attract active users. One of them is to use Instagram's embedded reels feature, which also recently appeared on Facebook.

The rivalry between the two platforms has only intensified due to the Instagram reels feature, which displays short videos in portrait orientation. Following that, TikTok mocks META as an application-cloning platform.

A feature that META developed in 2018 is the basis for the claim that TikTok is developing a copycat app. META was working on Lasso, a short video application similar to TikTok. The application had to be "injected to death" because it did not develop as expected.

Algorithm Differences

The algorithm for social media platforms run by META is quite distinct from that of TikTok. The two technology companies know the fundamental differences between their computing systems, each with a limited set of instructions. However, the outcome of both is to rise to the top of the social networking industry.

In its most basic form, Facebook's algorithm is an artificial intelligence-based social platform. Facebook is built on algorithms that use personalization to recommend content. It can be news, images, videos, and text based on preferences, thought patterns, and even particular political views.

It is said that the Facebook algorithm tries to get as many people as possible to use its site so that advertising can help businesses grow. A whistleblower by the name of Frances Haugen first made this public several years ago. He said that Facebook was secretive about how it used its algorithm software.

In the meantime, the operating system of the Instagram algorithm divides content that users enjoy. The feed frequently accessed or opened continuously will be used by the algorithm to create content.

ByteDance's President of Global Business Solutions, Blake Chandlee, emphasized the TikTok algorithm's differences. The TikTok algorithm, according to the former Facebook executive, is nothing more than a YouTube-like entertainment platform. Chandlee also emphasized that TikTok would not create a Facebook-like social algorithm.

The TikTok algorithm works to recommend content from video rankings based on preferences and will continue to be modified in response to video viewing habits. Based on what users like and dislike, the algorithm will continue to deliver video content that TikTok claims are entertaining to its users.

According to a study, TikTok's algorithm may have a negative side that can affect how the brain works, causing users to become dependent and addicted. Dr. Jessica Griffin, a clinical forensic scientist in the United States, explained that the TikTok app frequently displays a response similar to addiction. Some research subjects even lack the self-control necessary to stop watching.

Researchers have coined the term "addiction" to describe the skyrocketing number of TikTok users due to the platform's ability to present content that users will find enjoyable. In the meantime, Facebook is still regarded as monotonous because the algorithm frequently changes rapidly, rendering it unable to provide new features for its users.