TikTok's Secret Algorithm Unveils in Leaked Document 'Algo 101'

TikTok Algo 101 leaked document revealed the secret behind the algorithm of the famous video sharing platform, which keeps its users glued to their screens watching clips from the app with time passing by.

TikTok Secret Algorithm

As per the report by Gizmodo, lawmakers and regulators have been fascinated in unraveling the secret behind the algorithm of the social media giants taking over the idle time of its user base.

It is worth noting that the Chinese video-sharing app, TikTok, has been getting attention as it rapidly became one of the most popular social media platforms among its giant rivals like Google's YouTube and Meta's Facebook and Instagram.

In fact, TikTok has already overtaken YouTube as the social media platform with the most watch time per user, at least in the United Kingdom and the United States.

But still, despite shaking headlines every now and then with its increasing user base around the world and viral videos, there are tons of things about TikTok that most of us do not know about yet.

One of which is how its algorithm works and how it is successfully keeping us hooked to the short chips that TikTok is showing us. Not to mention that it keeps its users opening the app over and over again each day.

TikTok Algo 101 Leaked Document

Now, the secret algorithm of TikTok has been leaked to the public after the report by New York Times' Ben Smith revealed an internal document from the Chinese social media app.

However, it is to note that the New York Times did not include the said leaked document that reportedly goes by the name TikTok Algo 101.

Nevertheless, Gizmodo said in the same report that a TikTok spokesperson confirmed to the news outlet that the document that the Times mentioned is legitimate.

The spokesperson from TikTok further explained that the leaked document is meant to explain the algorithm of the tech giant to its employees who are not in the know with the latest technology.

So, it is expected that the "TikTok Algo 101" document explains the algorithm of the app in simpler terms. Thus, it may leave out some of the advanced technicalities from it.

Nevertheless, it still gives us an official overview as to how the algorithm of TikTok actually works.

TikTok's Algorithm: How it Works

The leaked document reveals that TikTok does not only look into the watch time of users in a video when it recommends it.

On top of that, the algo of TikTok also considers the number of likes that a video gets, the bulk of comments from its viewers, the overall duration of a clip or the "playtime," and lastly, if viewers played the video.

The document revealed the algo formula of a TikTok video this way: "Plike X Vlike + Pcomment X Vcomment + Eplaytime X Vplaytime + Pplay X Vplay."

The leaked document also noted that "the recommender system gives scores to all the videos based on this equation, and returns to users videos with the highest scores."

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Written by Teejay Boris