TikTok reportedly has a ‘secret’ button that employees can use to “heat” up videos and make them go viral, and it apparently prompted some massive successes.
As TikTok has shifted away from its early days of lip-syncing song videos and dance routines, its become home to a wide range of content. Pretty much every interest and niche is accounted for at this point.
Naturally, its become the go-to platform for viral videos, much like YouTube in its early days. We’ve seen everything from break-up drama, to fights, and unusual quizzes take off on TikTok before spreading to other platforms.
However, if you’ve wondered why some videos seem to take off more than others, it appears that TikTok – well, ByteDance, the owners – have the ability to “heat” up videos and push them to more users.
TikTok apparently has “heating” up button to make videos go viral
That’s according to a report from Forbes, which states that they’ve spoken to six current and former employees of TikTok, and have also shown the outlet internal documents.
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As per Forbes’ report, TikTok employees are able to “secretly hand-pick specific videos” in a process they call “heating” which pushes them more heavily to users than other posts. These videos can account for almost 2% of the platform’s total viewing figures for the day, which they label as a “significant impact.”
This has apparently been used to entice influencers and brands into using the platform, inflating their view counts to bring about partnerships between themselves and TikTok.
TikTok told Forbes that heating is used to “diversify the content experience” and that only a “few” US-based employees are able to approve the use of it. Though, it is also supposed to be used to “push important information.”
Some US states have already banned the use of TikTok on governmental devices due to cybersecurity concerns, but there’s no telling if that will ramp up following the report.
