TikTok knows there’s no substitute for the real thing

My wife and I have this tactic where, when we feel we’re getting way too much screentime, we delete TikTok off our phones. It’s obviously not the most groundbreaking tactic, deleting apps. But there’s something to how that’s always the first one we delete.

And if you’re wondering, yes, I do have the app deleted right now. So not only do I not have it, I can’t get it. Because, while the government ban has been lifted, the Apple App Store won’t list the app until the platform has a new owner.

Let me tell you—it’s probably good for me, already on my phone too much, that I cannot download the application. Because if I could, I’d have it again already.

It isn’t as if I’m completely avoiding the content consumption habit that TikTok fills and created in the first place. I still have Instagram and will flip over to the equivalent of the FYP on Reels.

And it is not…even…close to as good.

By “it,” what are we talking about? It’s a question worth answering because TikTok and Reels are functionally almost identical. Facebook pulled the same play they did with Snapchat when they couldn’t acquire them, basically copying the platform full-cloth. With Snapchat it was Stories and with TikTok it’s Reels. Snapchat’s functionality has diverged quite a bit from Stories since the latter’s conception but TikTok still largely serves the same purpose as Instagram Reels.

It’s short vertical video you can quickly scroll through, with most users relying on a page algorithmically programmed for them over—albeit heavily influenced by—people they directly follow.

For people primarily just consuming (vs. producing) content, they’re like two midsize SUVs at almost the exact same price-point. Hyundai Tucson vs. Kia Sportage, if you will.

But there’s just something about TikTok that makes it so much better. That something is the algorithm. And not just the algorithm but the type of content the algorithm promotes.

I’ll give you an anecdote. A couple weeks ago, my wife and I went to a small rock show with an up-and-coming young artist who also happens to be, like, a puppeteer. She makes her own puppets. There’s one based on an ex-boyfriend, a character in her songs.

I founder her on TikTok. By complete accident. Because that’s how you find stuff on there.

I saw one of her videos, I think I thought she seemed earnest and interesting. So I hit like. I wasn’t, like, looking for puppet content. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Then she started to do these lip syncing videos with the puppets, and those would show up on my For You Page. And eventually, after seeing her do Radiohead or something, there was a background song I hadn’t heard before. And it was a bop. It was her own original music.

Where else are you organically finding something like this? That isn’t to say TikTok is only stuff like the above but it’s uniquely built to surface—and surface again and again and again—stuff real people actually like, which is stuff from fellow real people.

Wild as it is, two of the best shows I went to in the last year were from artists I found on TikTok. I don’t go on TikTok to find music. Music isn’t even the reason these folks first caught my attention.

Here’s some typical Petey content, the other artist I found on TikTok.

From there to…a global tour that included a sold out show at The Showbox, perhaps Seattle’s most iconic venue.

So, why write about this here on 99 Park Row, the LexBlog blog? Well, it’s a fun thing to write on, for one. Always good. But also, here are the two points I’d take away:

TikTok is the place for weird niche content

There’s no rule that says lawyers can’t post weird, niche content. Heck, I’ve seen it on there. That isn’t to say, as an AmLaw 100 firm or something, you want to go out there and embarrass yourself with a dance skit or something—but if you have an idea for a series or a “bit,” that’s the spot to give it a shot.

Very fitting, today is Shut TF Friday after all.

TikTok shows it’s worth chasing the “it” factor in Product

I don’t know if this is something they necessarily set out to do, but TikTok is the current platform from which so much internet culture and content originates.

That used to be Twitter.

And TikTok occupies a similar space to the old Twitter. It doesn’t get users the most views. It doesn’t get paid partners the most money, either. Just like how Facebook always outperformed Twitter in driving web traffic, Reels does the same with views to TikTok. YouTube Shorts probably does, too.

But a lot of the stuff you see at those other places starts on TikTok. Because TikTok just has it.

So while Instagram Reels and TikTok are nearly identical in look, feel and function, there’s just something in the special sauce that makes TikTok better than the sum of its parts.

Sometimes, in building tech products, it can be hard to communicate to the talented folks designing and engineering those products that something just doesn’t feel right—that something just isn’t all the way there, despite fitting all the supposed criteria.

TikTok shows it’s worth it chasing that horizon. Because to users, that can make all the difference.