[16 Minutes on the News #41: Tiktok and ‘Seeing Like an Algorithm’](https://a16z.com/2020/09/18/16mins-tiktok-seeing-like-an-algorithm-friendly-design-creativity-network-effects-video/) with Eugene Wei and Sonal Chokshi

[Why the secret AI sauce behind TikTok is such a vital ingredient in luring potential buyers](https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3100287/why-secret-ai-sauce-behind-tiktok-such-vital-ingredient-luring)
> ByteDance has long been a proponent of content recommendation systems, and uses it on other products, such as the popular news aggregator Jinri Toutiao

[Scarcity Status versus Abundance Status (Gift Culture Part 3)](https://danco.substack.com/p/scarcity-status-versus-abundance?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxMjA3OTgxNywicG9zdF9pZCI6MTIxNDY3MywiXyI6IjN4UVFOIiwiaWF0IjoxNTk5NDYyNTY4LCJleHAiOjE1OTk0NjYxNjgsImlzcyI6InB1Yi04NjIzIiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.VikDucFRTHB3rWzkoUs3vmGSYM8_qSb86YUsXcjyk10)
Two Truths and a Take, Season 2 Episode 30 [**Alex Danco**](https://knowen.org/nodes/26404)

## [TikTok and the Sorting Hat](https://www.eugenewei.com/blog/2020/8/3/tiktok-and-the-sorting-hat?utm_source=Benedict%27s+Newsletter&utm_campaign=874029025e-Benedict%27s+newsletter+free&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_4999ca107f-874029025e-71150654)
> In the two sided entertainment network that is TikTok, the algorithm acts as a rapid, efficient market maker, connecting videos with the audiences they’re destined to delight. The algorithm allows this to happen without an explicit follower graph.

> TikTok’s algorithm sorts its users into dozens and dozens of subcultures
**I like to say that “when you gaze into TikTok, TikTok gazes into you.”** 

- https://www.eugenewei.com/blog/2019/2/19/status-as-a-service
> What changed Twitter, for me, was the launch of Favstar and Favrd (both now defunct, ruthlessly murdered by Twitter), these global leaderboards that suddenly turned the service into a competition to compose the most globally popular tweets. 

> Amazon and Netflix both launched social efforts though they’ve largely been forgotten

**People buying hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter is one of the cleanest examples of trading financial capital for social capital.**
> You could easily replace Status as a Service with FOMO as a Service.

[The Kids are Alright: An Interview with Eugene Wei and Julie Young (Gift Culture, Part 4)](https://alexdanco.com/2020/09/12/the-kids-are-alright-an-interview-with-eugene-wei-and-julie-young-gift-culture-part-4/)

- https://julian.digital/2020/03/28/signaling-as-a-service/

*While Instagram, Twitter and the other above-mentioned social networks are free to use, other companies have figured out a clever way to monetize their signal amplifiers*
> Software perfectly complements physical goods by distributing their signal messages at scale