This has certainly raised some eyebrows among social media and privacy analysts.
Today, TikTok has started showing to users in Europe, the United Kingdom and Switzerland New, in-app notifications Inform them about changes in data collection policy.
As you can see in these examples, shared by a social media expert Matt NavarreTikTok is changing the way people use data in its ad targeting systems.
More specifically, TikTok explains it:
“If you are 18 or older and live in EEA, UK or Switzerland, TikTok is making a legal change to how it will use your on-TikTok activity to personalize your ads. Under applicable data protection laws, companies like TikTok must have a legal basis for processing your data. Historically, TikTok has asked for your “consent” to use your on-tick activity and off-tick activity to serve personalized ads. From 13 July 2022, TikTok will rely on its “legitimate interests” as a legal basis to use the TikTok activity to personalize ads for users 18 and older. “
Note the inverted commas around ‘consent’. It looks like a red flag.
Basically, TikTok states that if you have not previously agreed to personalized ads, which should be permitted by TikTok as part of the EU’s data privacy provisions, you will soon receive a form of personalized ads anyway. Based on your app-centric activity. TikTok seems to want to use a technology to maximize its ad performance, even among users who opt out of personalized targeting.
Which, of course, made the video an overnight sensation.
Although Twitter is owned and operated by Limbo Its metavers push to further divert its resourcesAs it turns out, TikTok is currently the only platform with a clear upward trajectory, where the number of uses is growing, more advertising dollars are coming in and new programs designed to capitalize on e-commerce and the creator economy.
TikTok, at least for now, is the clear winner of the social media sphere, isn’t it?
Okay, maybe not as much as you think.
In recent months, TikTok has owned ByteDance Facing a range of new challengesIncluding, most notably, changes in regulations regarding the use of data and algorithms in China.
Such as South China Morning Post:
“Like many Chinese technology companies, ByteDance’s potential for profit growth in the domestic market is clouded by stricter regulations. The central government has stepped up its efforts to control short video content. A new one Recommended Algorithm Use Control Act Effective in March.“
CCP regulators, increasingly frustrated with their inability to reign in content within these apps, have sought to impose more controls, extending to all of Bytdance’s core revenue streams.
That enhanced regulatory verification has already been done ByteDance has removed $ 100 billion from its valueThe company is forced to consider Sale offCut the stuff and much more because it works to fix the ship.
That pressure has also been extended to TikTok, which is trying to implement more China-centric style policies in terms of what can be expected from employees and the content it allows in the app, excluding changes to these new data usage.
ByteDance executive Joshua Ma, who was working with U of TickTockK ecommerce teamRecently it was forced to stand up after trying to impose stricter working conditions on employees to accelerate its expansion.
As reported The Financial Times:
“The launch of TikTok’s livestream shopping feature in the UK has triggered the expulsion of workers from the London ecommerce team. Some workers have complained of an aggressive company culture, unrealistic goals and expectations that go against the practice of British work. Staffers said they were often expected to work more than 12 hours a day, starting early to settle calls with China and ending late because in the evening livestreams were more successful, overtime was celebrated in internal communication. Some members of the ecommerce team were removed from client accounts after going on annual leave. ”
Mother also said She ‘doesn’t believe’ in maternity leaveWhich was also reported by The Financial Times, and which, incidentally, led to another problem with the content, then reported with TikTok Consider a step to censor keywords Such as on the ‘Financial Times’, ‘Joshua Mother’, ‘Motherhood’, and ‘Toxic’ platforms so as to weaken the impact of the Financial Times report.
TikTok says the ban has never been implemented, but it raises a fundamental concern in TikTok’s approach, in which the first instinct of at least some practitioners was to try to silence criticism and dissent.
And you have to assume that at least some of this has expanded under pressure from the company’s Beijing headquarters.
It’s not clear how this new data usage policy relates, but it still contributes about a third to TikTok. ByteDance’s overall revenueDespite its global reach, you can imagine being interested in raising more cash from the BitDance app – and sooner rather than later.
Which remains a challenge. BitDance has seen great revenue success with the Chinese version of TikTok (known as ‘Douyin’) through the implementation of eCommerce integration, primarily driven by the adoption of live-stream commerce in China.
According to ByteDance, over 20 million individual content creators And live-streaming hosts Now it is generating revenue from its apps including Total Live Shopping revenue set in Chinese market Reach out $ 423 billion This year. More than that Ireland’s total GDP.
But the CCP’s crackdown is also affecting this element, with a huge push to catch influential people who are not meeting their tax burden, which has already affected many local streaming stars.
Add to that the fact that more brands are reconsidering their relationship with Streamer (claiming more attractive deals due to influencers) and signs indicate that a reckoning is coming for the booming sector, which in turn will affect ByteDance.
It’s not as great as pushing with TikTok. Despite its popularity, TikTok is still developing a more equitable business process, especially in ensuring that its top stars are paid. TikTok is expected to bring around $ 11.6 billion ad revenue this yearBut there is still no effective way to redistribute it among the creators, which could eventually lead to many of them flowing instead of YouTube and Instagram.
TikTok is working on it, as mentioned, but a key focus, as in China, is live-stream commerce, which is expected to become a golden goose in the West as well. But that hasn’t happened yet, and many Chinese trends haven’t translated into other markets in the past – and it may well be that TikTok makers want to get paid just to make videos, which they can’t do on TikTok, but through YouTube’s Partner Program.
Could it cause more creators to lose interest in the platform and take their audience with them? That’s what killed Vine in the end, and it’s still a real possibility for Tic Tac Toe. That’s why the tick Desperate to return to IndiaWhile it is still banned, it wants to implement more advertising options and tools to maximize its revenue when it can.
Basically, when viewed over a wide range, you can see how the increasing pressure on ByteDance is weighing on TickTock and will probably force it to move forward with a variety of revenue tools, including more advertising, which poses a greater risk for its growth. Possible
Needless to say, TikTok is still on the way out. Far from it, however, there are signs and anxieties that you may not recognize when looking at its growth numbers in isolation.
Maybe there’s a way around it – maybe TikTok could be sold and act as an individual entity, or maybe its trading options would be a hit and facilitate big business opportunities for the app.
Either way, as the app’s core business pressure increases, you’ll see more changes to the app.
