alt Hacker NewsCompletely anecdotally, I've seen Tiktok get replaced almost entirely by Instagram Reels in the sample space of, well, links to funny videos people send me. It doesn't count for much, but I do feel people might have slightly overestimated how much sticking power a platform like this has.
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While TikTok is clearly still dominant, I don't think it has much of a moat.
If Insta and youtube shorts get enough traction, there's no reason creators won't simply post to each of them to maximize their reach. The legacy platforms are heavily courting/promoting short form video, why leave possible monetization on the table?
Hell, I'm too old for their demo, but I see TikTok videos posted to Reddit and even BlueSky.
In the grand scheme of things, it's not like Zuck is any better than Ellison in the context of the article. Conservative consolidation of media is the point: Twitter, Meta, TikTok, are all the same flavor of Skittles with a slightly different colored shell.
That's generational.
They are both very similar obviously, but the social network on one isn't the same as the other.
I wonder if that's generational.
A lot of the people in my age group (Millennials) decided that TikTok was where we were going to get off the "hot new social media platform" train.
The Zoomers and GenAlpha kids seemed to be the people really using it, but I'm just a crotchety old guy with a bald head and a gut and an office job at this point, so I don't know what the hip young people are up to with their Tok Clocks and their loud rock music.
Actually I think there’s an important distinction there: the draw of TikTok isn’t people sending videos to you, it’s the algorithm that automatically suggests them to you. I’ve heard it describes as uncanny at matching your interests and Reels isn’t anywhere near it.
(I don’t use TikTok so I don’t know first hand!)