Hey, Insta & YouTube, Are You Watching TikTok?

In early 2023, the entertainment app TikTok reached close to 1 billion users globally, placing it 4th behind the leading social networks of Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. Featuring a sophisticated recommendation engine, TikTok mastered the art of keeping users interested for long periods of time. TikTok’s business model focused on advertising as the principle source of revenue and, by 2023, the app had become irresistible to many marketers. At the same time, competition in the market for short-form videos intensified when Instagram introduced Reels and YouTube launched Shorts in late 2020.
The fall of 2022 brought further surprises. YouTube decided to share a significant portion of its ad revenue from Shorts with the creators of the videos, a first in the industry. Meanwhile, Instagram appeared to move away from recommending content by accounts the users followed, making the app less social. Zhang Yiming, the founder of ByteDance, Liang Rubo, ByteDance CEO, and Chew Shou Zi, TikTok’s CEO, had to decide how to respond to these latest developments. Had Meta’s Zuckerberg really announced the end of social media? Did YouTube’s Wojcicki’s move destroy TikTok’s business model?