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Comment by anshumankmr | Hacker News Reader

Something as massive as YouTube can be beaten. This feels like the circle of life, considering every empire that rises eventually falls too. Though I am not saying TikTok is the doom for YouTube since geo politics will play a significant role its future. And there are other metrics by which TikTok hasn’t probably caught up with YouTube yet like the size of the user base, revenue etc.

What seems odd is how TikTok is managing this. YouTube is popular among all demographics, the diversity of content is mind bogglingly high whereas (I presume) TikTok is popular among the crowd who are either going to highschool or in college. Its primary purpose is entertainment, so how did it beat YouTube exactly?

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I think they're very different platforms serving completely different content. I see tiktok as instagram/twitter/snapchat's competition rather than youtube's. If you go back several years on youtube(like 10 years back) you'll find a lot more casual low-res videos of people being goofy/interesting without any agenda to build a following. Nowadays youtubers are all "Hey guys thanks for clicking on my clickbait title don't forget to smash that like button and subscribe I know you're here because of the title but I'm going to do a long intro about something else because I really need this to be 10 minutes long." To be fair many of these are great documentary/educational/infotainment/explainer series on Youtube that I won't find anywhere else. Wendover or Real Engineering are more well-known examples but there's a long-tail of niche history and economics accounts I like to follow that formats like tiktok won't serve anytime soon.

The lowered barrier to entry with TikTok and its algorithm means that someone with a PhD in an extremely esoteric field can do a quick presentation without having to make TikTok their new career. Real Engineering is great, but they didn't randomly fire off one YouTube video and get where they are today.

TikTok is also absolutely filled with pseudo informative content which looks exactly like this but the statements and numbers are complete garbage. Because the platform does not put much weight behind users and names, this stuff is just as prominent as the real content.

Don't they serve very different demographics and/or interests?

I've been assuming TikTok is the equivalent of "what is trending today", where "what" is something related to dance moves, or other stuff I don't find very interesting. (Or, it's not that I find dance moves uninteresting, it's just that it's not something I'd want to spend time consuming). Are my assumptions wrong, and there is genuinely interesting, and more in depth content on TikTok?

Also, the whole thought of a video platform devoted to teenagers filming themselves dance ... is... well, to be honest, a bit creepy. But I suppose this is a concern for just a part of the content if my assumptions are wrong.

Ps: Just to clear, I'm not saying there isn't creative things or something to learn or expand some kind of understanding through TikTok. Just that, surely, there isn't much overlap between YouTube and a platform limited to 15 second video clips? Especially one, that for someone who has never used it, seems mostly limited to teenagers filming themselves dance?

I have never installed TikTok or watched any content on it. I assume it is a spiritual successor to Vine.

While dance content is the most popular, the system that recommends videos allows a factor of magnitude more niches than other platforms. In no way is TT limited to dance. Within the first day I stopped seeing dance content. If you want to post stuff that would do well here, it would do well on TikTok.

Is the barrier to entry (installing yet another app on your phone) onerous in some way that I don't see? Otherwise it seems straightforwards enough to install the app for yourself and see what's on there.

There's a ton of content that isn't thirst traps (aka teenagers dancing), but while that's an interesting question to dig in to, if enough people switch mediums (from newspapers to radio to TV to YouTube to Tiktok), there doesn't have to be an overlap for one to largely supplant the next. How's the New York Times doing these days?

> dance moves, or other stuff I don't find very interesting

There are lots of different corners of TikTok, and for good or bad it's generally pretty good at forming some fairly niche communities. I have a couple of primarily dance-oriented creators I follow—none of them teenagers, fwiw—but the most interesting are the ones who use their platform to educate, whether it be about science-y stuff or music or history or whatever; I've learned a lot from following a substantial group of Black creators who've taken the time to talk about their lived experiences. These communities with somewhat deeper content really took off when the platform opened up 60 second videos (I gather that was late in 2020?) and they've mostly gotten even better now that creators (at least some of us?) can make 3-minute videos.

It's all based on what you like and follow, though. Very early on, it's worthwhile to go out-of-band to track down names of a few creators that you can seed your for-you-page with, otherwise you'll get the lowest common denominator stuff. Sometimes someone will "duet" or "stitch" another video and then you're introduced to another creator and can follow them directly; other times the FYP itself will serve up someone you've never seen or heard of but that has content (and presumably like-and-follow patterns) similar to the ones you do follow. And then you can like and/or follow the new person.

I mean, there's thirst traps too. If those were the only videos you liked, then that's what it would show you.

Based on the suggestions here, I went ahead and looked for myself, and I'm impressed by how fast and accurate TikTok figured out what I liked. After about two minutes, all it showed me was a combination tools, nature, animals, and woodworking.

I have a more niche hobbies like 3d printing and electronics which I'm sure it'll pick up within enough time, but, not a single video of what I assumed almost all videos were.

I'm happy to be wrong, and I get why TikTok is so popular.

To be fair, Youtube VS TikTok is mostly the wrong comparison.

Tiktok is mostly competing with the Insta/Facebook I need distraction so I'll let myself be numbed with external impulses as fast as I can get. Most similar was the story feature in Instagram, often also videos, although nobody every compared viewing them with Youtube.

Although Youtube also has it's scroll/impulsive it's not a direct competition. Although you could argue any form of time consumption (online) is competition.

I would not go as far as saying the comparison is wrong. From what I have read about the platform, it is a video sharing platform where teenagers can also insert currently trending music and share the content. There is also a home feed that works automatically by finding the best video suggested by an algorithm. So based on that description, it is fair to compare it to YouTube.

I agree YouTube /Instagram/Snapchat stories feature is closer to the experience of TikTok.

Though I making a guess since I have only read about it and seen some screenshots.

Tiktok videos are on average a few seconds to a maximum of 3 minutes (which is rare to see anything over a minute). A youtube video is 5-10 minutes on average. Comparing apples and oranges only works if are talking about a fruit salad.

The amount of commenting by people who have (proudly?) never used Tiktok in this thread is staggering.

Tiktok is more popular than just young people. I actually discovered tiktok was a thing because of... my mother, who used it.

The algorithms is insane, and it works for any age.

The age demographic for now is probably because young people tend to download new apps first than old people.

I think they're just different markets. YT is doing fine, revenue is up 30% YOY and all their viewer and channel growth numbers are very healthy.

YT has some knock-off of Stories but I have never used it. But unfortunately a lot of creators I watch (even some guys who explain very involved technical stuff) make videos for it now and label it #shorts which is annoying since I usually watch YouTube on my laptop or iPad.

It would be nice to see YouTube beaten by a more open platform like PeerTube. TikTok is just another proprietary app run by a for-profit company.

It would be nice but unless some massive VC backs it to market it and help it scale, or content creators become aware about it and jump ship, it won’t make a big dent.

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