A look at TikTok's rise, as US viewers spend longer in the video app than Facebook and Instagram combined, and ongoing issues with its Chinese ownership
The world's most popular app has pioneered a new age of instant attention. Can we trust it? — On the night Shelby Renae …
Washington PostDrew Harwell
Context & Ripple Effects
The attention gap this piece documents is the endpoint of a run that began with ByteDance projecting $18B in 2019 revenue and $29B by 2020 while hiring into a 40K-person staff — scale that made TikTok the first Chinese-owned app to lead Western consumer attention rather than chase it.
Meta's Facebook and Instagram are now competing for less than half of the video-app time TikTok commands, putting direct pressure on the ad inventory and engagement metrics both platforms sell against.
TikTok's time-share leadership hardens it as the single largest national-security surface in consumer software, sharpening the scrutiny Washington was already applying to its Chinese ownership.
Second-order effects
Instagram has already responded on the product side, adjusting its recommendation algorithm to favor teen-friendly content and boosting influencers in an aggressive, yearslong campaign to win back young users — a defensive retooling that now looks like a response to losing the time war.
Advertisers following watch-time shift budget toward TikTok's feed, giving ByteDance pricing leverage in social advertising even as regulators weigh restrictions on the company.
Third-order effects
If the pattern holds, app ownership itself becomes a geopolitical variable: the country of origin of a recommendation algorithm, not just its data practices, becomes grounds for market access decisions in the US-China tech split.
Social platforms consolidate around algorithmic video feeds as the default attention format, forcing every competitor to rebuild around recommendation engines regardless of their original social graph.
The trend: Consumer attention is consolidating behind algorithmic video feeds, converting the ownership of recommendation algorithms into a matter of national security policy.
.@washingtonpost snuck in a pat on its own back in their “How TikTok ate the internet” feature “The Washington Post's TikTok account has more than a million followers. One in three TikTok viewers in the United States regularly use it as a source of news.” https://www.washingtonpo…
Two-thirds of U.S. teens use TikTok; 1 in 6 watch it “almost constantly.” TikTok execs works in a country skilled at propaganda, surveillance & quashing dissent. It's “a platform that's shaping how a whole generation is learning to perceive the world.” https://www.washingtonpost.…
@_emilywright_ ... TikTok passed 1 billion users faster than any other app. The typical American user watches it for 80 minutes a day, more than Facebook and Instagram combined. One in six teens watch it “almost constantly.” The app is six years old! https://www.washingtonpost.co…
I wanna talk about this TikTok story but first I have to say how geeked I am by the visuals and design. So colorful and chaotic. And the mobile version! @_emilywright_ @jayneore @kdombsadof @vsingarayar are stars. Such a dream to work on a team like this https://www.washingtonpos…
@Techmeme @drewharwell Same thing was said of FB, Instagram, etc. At some point users will tire of TikTok too. And there is no magical algorithmic potion—it's just good analytics.
„The average number of hours each American user spent every day on TikTok exploded 67 percent between 2018 and 2021, while Facebook and YouTube grew less than 10 percent" Toller Text über den Erfolg von TikTok und die Anziehungskraft seines Algorithmus: https://www.washingtonpost…
TikTok website was visited last year more than Google. No app has grown faster past a billion users, and more than 100 million of them are in the US. The average US viewer watches TikTok for 80 minutes a day — more than the time spent on FB & IG, combined. https://www.washingtonp…
New: How TikTok ate the internet. The first in a three-part series. The world's most popular app has hooked a billion people and pioneered a new age of instant attention. Can we trust it? https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
Razor sharp @drewharwell article on TikTok's influence on culture, industries and us. “Every swipe could bring something better, but viewers don't know when they'll get it, so they keep swiping in anticipation of something they might never find.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ .…