What makes TikTok tick?

Photo by Hello I’m Nik on Unsplash

TikTok has quickly become the fastest-growing social media network in history. Having been downloaded more than two billion times, it is rivalling long-standing social media giants like Facebook. The short video sharing platform is rapidly changing the social media landscape in ways that Facebook and Twitter did a decade ago. But more than being simply a social media success story, TikTok’s success story is one of how to leverage consumer artificial intelligence. TikTok’s cutting edge AI is what keeps its users addicted to the app. The algorithm learns more about the user every minute spent on the app, interpreting their behaviour and delivering content based on the data obtained. The result is a highly addictive platform based on a constantly learning algorithm, with TikTok users spending, on average, more than 850 minutes per month on the app. Whilst many consumer platforms use AI in some shape or form – YouTube will give you video suggestions and Twitter might suggest somebody to follow – TikTok has flipped this concept on its head and made it the predominant DNA of the platform. AI is not a feature, but the product itself. TikTok is the first mainstream consumer app where artificial intelligence is the product. Unlike social media platforms that are designed for and used primarily as a communication tool, TikTok sells itself on being able to connect you with content and people you didn’t even know you wanted to see yourself. The company behind TikTok, ByteDance, know what they are onto, and have launched a new product: the AI behind the app. The new company, BytePlus, offers businesses the chance to tap into TikTok’s DNA and use it for their own consumer products. The ability to know what your consumers like, are interested in, dislike, find funny is gold dust and something that almost all companies are trying to capitalise on. But the new social media platform on the block is currently doing it better than the rest. The quick learnings of consumer behaviour are already widely used, but we are likely to see AI on this scale and in such an outwardly aggressive manner being used much more widely. We may be entering into a new era, both on social media and more widely, where AI and algorithms dictate what we see and what we engage with. The news we read, the products we buy, the music we listen to, all already influenced by what algorithms learn about us, may soon shift to be entirely AI led.

PR & Python: Why all PRs can benefit from coding experience

Photo by Chris Ried on Unsplash

Public relations is no longer purely driven by press releases, opinion pieces, and media relations. We now live in a visual-driven, digital-first world where audiences are fragmenting, and ranking algorithms and artificial intelligence increasingly influence the news agenda. As our industry evolves, so too must the skills of the public relations practitioners who wish to remain valued strategic advisors with a seat at the table. In a world driven by algorithms, this means learning skills like coding – not something typically found in a PR consultant’s arsenal of tools. The more the offline world intersects with the online, the more we need to understand basic code and languages like Python and Ruby. Furthermore, coding opens up an entirely new world of possibilities and the ability to overcome a number of challenges all PRs face. It goes without saying that PR specialists are not a Swiss army knife of communications skills. As an industry, we should be more open-minded about what skills we need to learn to meet the challenges of a visual-driven and digital-first world. If you think you are out of depth now, Zuckerberg’s Metaverse will only speed up the transition. In this brave new digital world, data is king. Be it tweets, media coverage, website traffic or YouTube retention figures, insights to be found are everywhere. Without such insights, it is simply impossible to create an informed communications strategy that matches the right messages and channels with the appropriate audiences through the right medium. In this new world, the tried and tested tools like Excel simply can’t compete. Not only can coding help to replace such programmes, but with a bit of effort algorithms can be developed, which would automate, and more importantly, speed up the analysis of large volumes of data. As we look forward to 2022, the evolution of Public Relations will continue, and the lines between PR and Digital Marketeer will only continue to blur. Confronting this challenge, and adding value in a competitive marketplace means up-skilling and pushing boundaries. For those that inhabit the world of reputation management, data, and the data science skills that coding unlocks, opens up a smarter way of working. Given we already rely on tools, such as Brandwatch or even TikTok, that utilise machine learning and artificial intelligence, through coding we can gain a better understanding of how they work, and the potential crisis points caused by mishandling data or biased artificial intelligence algorithms. By capitalising on the technology available and designing our own tools tailored to provide the data and insights we want, we will be in a much better position to strategically advise our clients going forward.

Digital Digest – 05 January

In this week’s digital digest we look at US investors swooping on British tech startups and Meta appealing the CMA’s decision over its acquisition of Giphy.  

We then take a look at big tech as Apple becomes the first $3 trillion company and we come to the end of an era as Blackberry switches off its software.

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Closer To Home

US investors swoop on British tech start-ups ahead of national security overhaul

In 2021, US investment firms didn’t think twice about getting ahead of new national security laws that would come into effect in the new year. 130 British start-ups were taken over by American companies in 2021, 87 more than in 2020 and breaking the previous record of 105 in any one calendar year. 

One could say that these figures are a sign that the UK is one of the best environments in the world for tech start-ups, however it can also be argued that these start-ups are being acquired before they reach their full potential.

Under the new law ministers will be able to intervene in smaller deals than before, potentially providing a barrier to start-up takeovers. At present, the government will not intervene in takeovers of companies making less than a £70m turnover a year in most sectors. However, the new regulations require firms in various technology sectors to notify the government if a foreign entity is attempting a takeover.

Meta to appeal CMA’s ruling on Giphy acquisition

Following the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) announcement in November 2021 that it would block Meta’s acquisition of Giphy, The Competition Appeal Tribunal has said that Meta has filed an appeal against the decision on six grounds.

The reason behind the CMA decision was that the sale would result in reduced competition between social media platforms as well as in display advertising, thereby harming social media users and businesses in the UK. It was concluded by the panel that Meta would increase its significant market power vis a vis other competitors by limiting their access to Giphy GIFs.

Meta’s appeal is not entirely surprising as the deal would essentially drive more traffic to Meta-owned sites such as WhatsApp and Instagram. However, should the appeal be unsuccessful and the deal ultimately fail, it could signal the end of Big Tech’s spending spree in the UK as the regulator ups the ante on ‘killer acquisitions’. 

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Big Tech

Apple becomes first $3tn company after boost from pandemic demand

While Microsoft overtook it as the world’s most valuable company in October 2021, Apple’s valuation has risen by half a trillion dollars since mid-November. Tripling since 2018, Apple’s valuation rose by a total of $1tn in less than 16 months as it enjoyed a pandemic-induced boom.

As only one of six companies to be valued at over $1tn, Apple has cemented its place at the top of the valuation tree by successfully navigating a supply chain crisis. It has benefited greatly during the pandemic as customers upgraded their office supplies as a result of the shift to home working.

Apple is also thought to have benefited from Tesla’s success due to hope the smartphone manufacturer would enter the electric car company in the next five years. The booming valuation adds a feather to the cap of Apple CEO, Tim Cook, under whom the company’s valuation increased by $2.7tn in spite of early critics when he took the reins from the late Steve Jobs.

End of an era as BlackBerry software switches off

Support for the few remaining Blackberry phones has come to an end. The once prolific mobile phone developer experienced a sustained decline over the past decade as it struggled to keep up with Apple and Android. Having sold 50 million phones in 2011, the company saw its sales collapse and by 2016 the company accounted for 0% of the market share, selling just 207,900 units.

While other hardware developers innovated, utilising advancements such as touch screen technology and an ever increasing libraries of apps, Blackberry relied on its devoted users who appreciated its older style keyboard and interface. Blackberry eventually released a touchscreen model in 2013, but by this time the ship had sailed.

Blackberry as a company still operates, developing security software for cars and businesses while also licensing out the Blackberry name to other manufacturers, with another developer slated to release a licensed phone later this year, using the Blackberry name.

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Also in the News:

1. Unpredictable spend: could the subscription model be a way for marketers to buy creative? Creative platform Shuttlerock is attempting to shift the burden of compromise with its new subscription model. See here. 

2. The 2021 media industry in charts: Ad spend bounces back, digital subs grow and press freedom declines. See here.

3. Popcorn – the ‘Netflix of piracy’ – is dead, developers announce. See here. 

4. Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos who has been convicted of 11 charges of fraud, is far from the only tech leader overpromising and underdelivering. See here. 

5. Investors gear up for ‘gold rush’ in metaverse hardware as a boom is expected in ‘picks and shovels’ underpinning technologies such as headsets, sensors and chips. See here.

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Worth a Read:

1. Wired: Electric Vehicle Charging is the Next Billion-Dollar Market.

2. The Drum: The future of marketing is building a privacy-safe world.

3. FT: Tencent move to sell $3bn of Sea shares sends stock down sharply.

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