First 1000

Share this post

💡Friends vs Stranger Feeds

read.first1000.co

Discover more from First 1000

The untold stories, strategies, and growth hacks companies deployed to get the first 1000 customers. New issue every other Tuesday
Over 86,000 subscribers
Continue reading
Sign in

💡Friends vs Stranger Feeds

Tiktok trying to be more Twitter. Twitter trying to be more Tiktok

Ali Abouelatta
May 2, 2023
39
Share this post

💡Friends vs Stranger Feeds

read.first1000.co
Share

Hey Friends 👋,

The big novel idea that Tiktok brought to social media was its algorithmic feed full of strangers

A few months ago, Twitter, the last social media holdout, implemented its own version of the For You page and made it the default way users interact with Twitter.

—
While everyone is trying to copy For You page, Tiktok has been busy moving in the direction of adding more specific feeds.

Here are two experiments they recently ran:

💡 Experiment 1: Tiktok Topic Specific Feed

The Control arm won. Topic-specific feeds were never launched.

💡 Experiment 2: Tiktok Friends Only Feed

In the next iteration, Tiktok was more aggressive and tested a Friends-specific feed. Friends feed shows only Tiktoks from people that mutually follow each other.

It’s funny to see Tikotok investing in a non-algorithmic user-curated feed while Twitter and other social media companies are doing the exact opposite.

(This test is still running, so TBD on the results.)
—

I found these experiments to be a good reminder that value accrues at polar ends of a spectrum (& anything in between is kind of moot).

Until next week,

Ali Abouelatta




39
Share this post

💡Friends vs Stranger Feeds

read.first1000.co
Share
Top
New

No posts

Ready for more?

© 2023 Substack Inc
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start WritingGet the app
Substack is the home for great writing