Facebook versus TikTok (owned by Bytedance) - by Steven Van Belleghem and Pascal Coppens

Facebook versus TikTok (owned by ByteDance) is one of the most exciting battles in the world of technology today. What can we expect from these two giants? China-expert Pascal Coppens and I take a look at this epic rivalry.

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TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Can FACEBOOK keep ahead of Bytedance? Facebook’s ecosystem is incredibly solid and broadest user base on social media globally, and therefore it will be very difficult for Bytedance to compete with Facebook outside of China. But Bytedance is a master at building new applications and algorithms to make the young users addictive to their platform.
01:11 What is FACEBOOK about? Facebook has acquired many platforms like WhatsApp, Instagram and integrate in their offering; as well as competing head-on and slowing competitors like snapchat down. Their vision of the future is based on mixed reality and leverage the billions of users in a new virtual world.
04:42 What challenges is FACEBOOK facing? With 3 billion users, their challenge will be to keep generation Z on their platform. Another challenge is that advertisement makes up 90% of their revenue. Any regulation change could harm Facebook massively. Of course, the trustworthiness of Facebook is known as being under constant attack by government and users with fake news.
08:58 How is FACEBOOK doing on providing ultimate convenience? Facebook has zero-tolerance for digital inconvenience, and work with try-outs because of that. If new digital features are launched, they measure it closely before releasing it to all users.
09:57 Is FACEBOOK a partner in life? Mark Zuckerberg’s dream is to bring the world closer. Today they are a partner in communication, and to move to partner in life, their other services will have to become more part of user journey. This however means competition with Amazon, Shopify, Pinterest, Tik Tok, …
11:00 How is FACEBOOK changing society and the world? Facebook is very serious and doing well on renewable energy and CO2 emission level reductions. The question is how can they leverage their platforms to make an impact on the environment by mobilizing their 3 billion users to make a real difference.
12:21 What is BYTEDANCE about? Bytedance was set up in 2012. Their most famous product is Tik Tok, which is the attention factory of the world. Bytedance has many more products like DouYin, Toutiao, Lark and 50 more products that are quite popular in China. The Tik Tok miracle is that they acquired 1 billion users in less than 3 years, due to their very efficient AI algorithms. These same algorithms are used to constantly test a new product every week into the market in many sectors. Their vision now is to go heavily into gaming and VR to get into even more attention from more users.
17:04 What opportunities does BYTEDANCE have? Their engineering mindset is a great asset for the company to grow. Their lead into social e-commerce is a great opportunity for them globally, especially because they have the attention of younger users growing up. Their open corporate culture in China is a magnet for employees to work at Bytedance.
18:46 What challenges are BYTEDANCE facing? One of the main challenges are the geopolitical conflicts in US and India. The security of local user’s data is becoming a national security risk for some countries. One of their main challenges as a tech company is to hire at enormous speed to keep up with their growth.
20:47 How is BYTEDANCE doing on providing ultimate convenience? The product provides a very algorithm driven personalization, that creates addiction of users to their streams. The also offer users their five minutes of fame, giving young users a platform for their creativity.
22:34 Is BYTEDANCE a partner in life? Bytedance is partnering very closely with users, both from creation point of view; but also, from a personalization point of view, which helps Bytedance with data to build even more relevant products. Their mini-programs are also a good way to see how they partner with brands, who can sell products on Bytedance products within the short-videos and receive the data directly from Bytedance without being kept hostage by e-commerce platforms.
23:55 How is BYTEDANCE changing society and the world? They are helping much to alleviate poverty in China and tackle environment together with the government who is now owner of 1% of their shares. The CEO Zhang Yiming stepped down in 2021 to focus more on doing good for China and the world.
25:11 Who has the best offer that we can’t refuse? The difference between Facebook and Bytedance is primarily the algorithm. At Facebook a lot about optimizing content for user engagement; while at Bytedance, it’s really about optimizing content streams for user relevance. The battle seems to become between the social connections and the attention factory.