

The very construction of the app in this respect gives it a huge advantage. That’s increasingly becoming a more apt descriptor – and while every other social network tries to catch up, and boost their own engagement stats by providing more sticky, compulsive usage experiences, TikTok’s algorithmic and content approaches stand out, with the focus being on the best content from all users, as opposed to restricting your inputs to your smaller, curated networks. This is the shift to entertainment over social – and indeed, TikTok refers to itself as ‘an entertainment app’, not a social network. This is reflected in internal data from Meta, which The Wall Street Journal published back in January, which showed that while Meta usage rose in Q4 2022, creation and engagement declined, with fewer people posting to both Facebook and Instagram than they have in the past. But now, most people can watch video content on the go, at relatively low rates, which has shifted the dynamic even further towards video being the primary media that users engage with.Īnd as noted, people just aren’t posting on social media like they once did. That wasn’t possible in the past, due to network connectivity limitations and related costs. people posting their own thoughts and updates – entertainment has become the key purpose of social media apps, with users spending hours a day scrolling through an endless stream of short video clips. TikTok has become the go-to entertainment source for many people, and amid a broader shift away from social sharing – i.e.
