Hacker News Reader

I'm not so convinced. Let me first say, I can't stand TikTok and find its constant stream of annoying music angering.

That out of the way, my wife and daughter love it, and I can see why. It made it easy for anyone and everyone to share clips, with a touch of social. It makes YouTube look like a slow bloated dinosaur. I just don't see people giving it up.

View on HN

I mean Vine was the same concept and died due to lack of profitable monetization model.

How does TikTok earn money?

There’s an ad when you return to the app. Since you’re expecting a full screen video to auto play, they often aren’t out of place. You can skip them immediately as well.

Besides ads, one would think there’s endless ways to monetize a strong fun brand.

> one would think there’s endless ways to monetize a strong fun brand

YikYak, Tumblr, and Vine come to mind, and that's just social media space.

When you start free, monetizing in a way that doesn't totally destroy goodwill from your existing customers is tough.

I don't really see the comparison to those apps, though. None were nearly as big as musically/tiktok. I think it's unfair to even compare it to Vine, which is featureless in comparison.

If you ask me, ads with the ability to pay a monthly fee to remove them is the ideal situation.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com