I recently visited the TikTok Transparency and Accountability Centre at its Singapore HQ, as a guest of TikTok South Africa. It is the first time the company took journalists from SA to this office.

TikTok

You can read my article on how TikTok is tackling election integrity, published here: https://www.news24.com/citypress/trending/tiktok-to-tackle-election-misinformation-20240517

After getting a quick office tour, we received detailed explanations on how things work behind the scenes at this social media giant’s app, which has been topping the charts globally, for years.

From data shared by DemandSage, as of April 2024, TikTok has a staggering 1.56 billion monthly active users worldwide, from its 1.677 billion users. It is the fifth most popular social media platform, used mainly by Gen Zs, as the 18-34 age category is 69.3% of users.

The data also states that TikTok users spend 58 minutes and 24 seconds on the app daily, and the app has been downloaded over 4.92 billion times. These numbers are mind blowing, proving how engaging it is for those who use it.

One of the topics covered at TikTok’s office was how its recommendations on the For You Page works, aka its algorithm. You’ve probably had conversations around how its algorithm works, how it gets it so right.

TikTok’s algorithm

Here’s what I learnt about TikTok’s algorithm in Singapore:

  1. TikTok uses AI and Machine Learning (ML) embeddings to serve content to users. A big part of that is interaction is like, comment, share, music, finish, skip, report dislikes, and time spent viewing; basically, everything you do when you are served a video.
  2. ML will use all your interactions on what you enjoy watching or not based on the above and will store this information with binary (0s and 1s), and thus calculate the distance between the user and the videos; the closer they are using this method, the more likely the user will enjoy a video that matches the embeddings.
  3. TikTok will also use information for people whose interests are close to each other in terms of what they like or how they interact and will then recommend similar videos.
  4. When it comes to the For You Page, TikTok uses a method called “loads” that has 8 different types of videos to serve to anyone who opens the app. They will use the above-mentioned interactions to further narrow down the types of content you enjoy. It will know eventually whether you like cat, dog, food, beauty, etc videos. This will also impact the loads you get the next time you open the app.
  5. Every region gets different videos based on local culture and what’s trending from TikTok’s content operations teams. This is also what is used to start off with for new users, until it learns what you like, which will impact your loads.
  6. When your feed is 60% the same based on your interactions, TikTok calls this a “filter bubble” and will start injecting other popular videos into your feed to give them a choice to get out of that bubble. They do this to avoid users getting tired of seeing the same content, which may not be a good user experience.
  7. Everything shown by TikTok’s recommendation system is already pre-filtered and has been through checks to make sure it does not violate any of its community guidelines.
  8. Content you search for will go into a collection that indicates you’re interested in the video, which is regarded as a positive signal. Remember this when you search for weird things!
  9. If you are tired of seeing a particular type of content, you can long press and say, “not interested”, and can click through to share more details – this is location dependent. In South Africa mine shows hashtags only but in Singapore it was more detailed. Content preferences under Settings also let you filter by keywords. The other method is to reset your feed, a feature launched last year; I’ve even made a video about it here. You start from scratch.
  10. Lastly, ever wondered why you’re seeing a video on your For You Page? Well, just tap into the “share button” and click on “Why this video”. This feature is being rolled out and appears on some videos.

Here’s a mini vlog from my trip:

@nafisaakabor Visiting @TikTok head office in Singapore as a guest of @TikTok South Africa. Mini vlog. #TikTokCeption #TikTokSouthAfrica #TikTokSingapore ♬ Mini Vlog Music Backsound – hasan music