How Did Tiktok Snatch the Lead From Google to Become the World's Most Popular Site?

Since its launch in 2018, TikTok has steadily grown, but it never rose higher than No. 7 in web traffic. Starting from August 10, 2021, the platform succeeded in ousting the Google domain with all its services to become the most popular website in the world. So, questions were raised about the reasons, the conditions, and the measures that allowed TikTok to top the internet.

Cloudflare, the technology firm that tracks online activity, announced on Friday 23 December that: “Google dethroned by the young ‘padawan’ TikTok,” adding that "it was on February 17, 2021, that TikTok got the top spot for a day. Back in March, TikTok got a few more days and also in May, but it was after August 10, 2021, that TikTok took the lead on most days."

The relatively new Chinese platform TikTok got the top spot bypassing the wide range of Google services including Google Maps, Photo and Email, search engine. In fact, 2021’s list of most popular domains was listed by Cloudflare as: “After TikTok and Google, Facebook came at the third position, followed by Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, YouTube, Twitter, and WhatsApp, to complete the top ten list.”

According to a report published by the French newspaper Le Figaro, “The TikTok platform established by the Chinese company Bytedance in 2016, jumped 6 positions in just one year, and with its one billion monthly active users, it reached a new stage of prosperity.”

 

Entertainment Need

The critical change in 2021, with TikTok.com jumping to the top, may have many reasons. The expert on Economics Soumia Rahali researcher at Sabahattin Zaim University explained to Al-Estiklal: “with its personalized video feed, TikTok is challenging the likes of YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat. In fact, the need for entertainment during the hard times that the world witnessed may have been of crucial importance to the explosion in popularity of the TikTok social networking application. TikTok with its short dancing videos has been a relief from the Coronavirus pandemic circumstances and the lockdown annoying conditions for many TikTok users.”

On the same truck, the BBC website explained that:“It is believed one of the reasons for the surge in Tiktok's popularity is because of the Covid pandemic, as lockdowns meant people were stuck at home and looking for entertainment.”

Bryan Thoensen, head of content partnerships at TikTok, said: “The short-form video platform has long outgrown its roots as a way for teens to share lip-syncing video clips.”

He elucidated: “We are an entertainment platform where cultural trends really start,” says Thoensen, citing among other things the community-driven “Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical.” He says the app’s secret sauce is its personalized feed and discovery features that “really present the most entertaining and diverse content you might not have otherwise experienced or seen. And that’s something that a social graph isn’t going to serve you up.”

 

Palestinians’ Alternative

The economic expert Soumia explained to Al-Estiklal that: “The Facebook abusive measures  restricting and controlling the support of the Palestinian cause was a push factor to many Arab users to opt for the TikTok social network.”

Ibrahim Abu Arafa, a software engineer, published an accurate analysis of how the youth of Jerusalem used the TikTok application as loudspeakers in mosques in a way to invite people to gather in order to face the danger.

He said in a series of tweets that the TikTok algorithm had a role in accelerating the pace of Jerusalem events. Unlike Facebook, which uses friends and user-experience-based filters, a key feature of TikTok's algorithm is the constant focus on geotagging.

Ibrahim added in another tweet: "This continuous and rapid filtering of what is geographically close to the user helped to broadcast what happened in the Bab al-Amoud area specifically to the rest of Jerusalem's neighborhoods. Along with its ability to deliver the message with a high and attractive effect and a quick detailed explanation of what is going on."

The other important feature that Ibrahim uncovered is that TikTok has the ability to deliver content to all users in the same geographical surroundings effortlessly due to the filtering feature or direct “recommendations”, which is one of the strengths of this application.

Ibrahim emphasized: “The youth in Jerusalem used the TikTok application to deliver their videos and appeals to the largest number of residents of the Jerusalem vicinity so that they could join them in the confrontations at the Bab al-Amoud area.”

 

A Threat for Children?

The TikTok popularity does not erase the multiple allegations the platform receives. For instance, in 2019 the Chinese social network was fined £4.3m after it was found to have knowingly hosted content published by underage users.

Last February, The European Consumer Protection Organization filed a complaint with the European Union against the Chinese social networking application TikTok for various reasons, including its failure to protect children.

The organization submitted its complaint to the European Commission, in which it stated that TikTok—which is widely popular among young Internet users around the world—violates European Union law. 

According to a press release issued by the organization, "TikTok failed to protect children and teens from hidden advertisements and harmful content on its platform."

It added, "TikTok may also have failed to give due attention to protecting children from inappropriate content, such as videos that show suggestive content, that a child can easily access."

The European organization also claimed that the terms of service of the TikTok platform are unfair because of its ambiguity and that the way TikTok deals with the personal data of users is misleading.

From its side, the Chinese authority instructed rules to protect the Chinese under 14 years old. The BBC explained that: “In China, to comply with the country's censorship rules, the app is called Douyin, and runs on a different network. Douyin was originally released in September 2016. In 2021, China ruled that users under the age of 14 would be limited to 40 minutes a day on the platform.”