Rebecca Zisser/BI
- If ByteDance is actually forced to sell TikTok, it might not include the app's algorithm.
- But that might not be a huge issue for a new owner. "For You" recommendations could be recreated.
- TikTok has said it won't sell — and will fight the ban in court.
The ink is dry on the "TikTok ban" bill, and there's already talk about what a forced sale could look like: Would TikTok's owners agree to sell? And if so, would they strip out the addicting and seemingly all-knowing algorithm first?
TikTok's Chinese parent company, ByteDance, is already considering selling the app without its algorithm, The Information reported Thursday. (ByteDance denied this.)
The idea of TikTok being sold without the secret sauce that makes its "For You" pages might seem like a disaster for a new owner. Like buying a Ferrari without an engine — you'd just have a red car and some nice leather seats.
But … what if that's not exactly true? What if the TikTok algorithm doesn't really matter that much?
The magic of TikTok's 'For You' page
TikTok's "For You" page seemed mind-blowing and mysterious back in 2020. It showed something radically different from the recommendation feeds of other social platforms like Instagram.
Instead of relying on you following certain accounts, it quickly tailored a feed to you based on actions other than who you followed. It considered things like how long you lingered on a certain video. Watching a lot of videos with cows eating grass in a field? Expect to be served up a lot more of that. You could have a completely personalized feed without ever following another user.
Now that we all kind of know how the algorithm works, if a new owner bought TikTok and wanted to build a new version of the "For You" page, perhaps it wouldn't be a completely impossible task. It's kind of like those Bon Appetit videos where chefs would try to recreate junk food like Ruffles potato chips — it's a stroke of genius to invent Ruffles in the first place, but if a talented cook already knows what a Ruffle looks and tastes likes like, they can do an approximation of it.
Of course, computer engineering isn't quite the same as cooking. As The Information pointed out, a significant hurdle is that a new buyer would be stuck trying to hire machine-learning engineers in a competitive market for talented tech workers.
And if it's just a matter of spending money to hire new engineers, that would be one thing. But if it were as simple as throwing money at the problem, then why hasn't Meta been able to make Reels as good as TikTok?
Probably for a million tiny reasons, ranging from luck to company culture. I would posit that a key element that makes TikTok so enjoyable is something that would come with the sale: its user base.
Yes, the magic of the "For You" page is what drew so many people in, to begin with, but TikTok created its own culture that is distinct from Instagram or YouTube, and that's what makes it hard for Reels or Shorts to replicate.
Just look at what happened with Threads
For another comparison, consider Threads vs. X, aka Twitter: Threads now has more daily active users than X, but I don't think anyone would say that the vibes are the same on the two apps.
Plenty would argue they prefer Threads because it has fewer of the toxic qualities of X, but it's undeniable that X still has the crackle and juice that can never be replicated. X is a great example of a company where a change of ownership certainly made the product worse and lost money and users, but you've also got, in Elon Musk, a new owner who has made so many bad decisions about how to run the platform that it would be impossible to replicate that mess.
There's also another thing that could be a drag on TikTok that doesn't even have to do with the algorithm. It's likely that the next year of waiting for a potential sale of TikTok will cause a talent drain and low morale across all parts of the company, including non-technical roles. There are tons of tiny things that make TikTok so fun to use aside from the next video showing up in your feed — and that means tons of tiny ways for it to get worse.
Selling TikTok without the algorithm — whatever that actually means — is not ideal, but it might not be the one thing that sends TikTok down a path toward MySpace status.