Although the title is "One Week TikTok," I didn't actually play TikTok for seven consecutive days. The appeal of short videos may not be as great as I imagined before, at least not for now. Initially, I wanted to compare the user experience between TikTok and Douyin (because I haven't played Douyin before), but after casually watching a few videos on the Douyin website, I gave up on that idea. I probably watched about ten videos, and there were about five or six videos with various machine-dubbed movie narrations, which made me lose interest.
Complaints#
Actually, I registered a TikTok account a long time ago, but back then there were not many methods to bypass the TikTok SIM card detection, so I could only browse videos on the website. However, the website version at that time was really not good, even until now, I still think that TikTok's website version is not as good as Douyin's. The video playback window only occupies a small part of the webpage, and the window feels like a mobile phone in portrait mode, with a lot of blank space on both sides. And when you switch videos using the arrow keys on the keyboard, you will find that when you switch to the next video, the window does not move up completely, and the part below the favorite button is mysteriously cropped off, and you need to manually slide it up, which is really frustrating.
In comparison, Douyin's website version does not have this situation, and the layout looks more comfortable.
Okay, enough digression, it's time to get to the point.
When playing TikTok, I intentionally avoided content related to Chinese because I was afraid that the algorithm would recognize me as a user who likes Chinese content, so I always tried to avoid Chinese content.
Some Comparisons#
Apart from some content that I actively searched for and followed related accounts, most of the content was recommended to me by the system algorithm.
- Natural scenery. The first thing I saw when I opened TikTok was this type of video, and I have seen many of these videos on other platforms as well. Interestingly, many Chinese natural scenery videos were recommended to me.
- Movie clips. I mentioned earlier that there are many machine-dubbed narrations on Douyin, but I haven't seen any machine-dubbed narration accounts on TikTok. The clips I saw were directly from the original movies, and I saw many clips from the Avengers series.
- Daily life clips. I followed some celebrity accounts, such as Dwayne Johnson and Chris Hemsworth. Their accounts share some of their daily life, many of which are related to their families.
- Street talents. For example, I saw a guy playing the piano at the entrance of a shopping mall and sharing his daily life on TikTok. There are also some street dances, but I rarely see street singing.
- Cute pets. Daily clips of cats and dogs with their owners.
During this period, the content on TikTok can be roughly divided into these categories. Although I haven't played Douyin, I have learned that there are many beautiful women on Douyin. However, I haven't seen any street snap videos, street beauties, handsome guys, or any other beautiful women videos on TikTok. It doesn't even want to recommend any of them to me.
In terms of playing with memes, I feel that TikTok users don't play with memes as much as Douyin users. On Douyin, if you mention a recent internet meme, many people will immediately understand it, and netizens can even create derivative works based on the memes. For example, as I mentioned earlier, the meme of Cai Xukun. Once someone associates this meme in a video, the comment section becomes full of creativity. But in the comment section of TikTok, I rarely see netizens playing with memes. This may be related to the type of videos I watch, and it is destined that there won't be many people playing with memes under that type of video (or maybe they do, but I didn't understand due to cultural differences 😅).
The phenomenon of loud BGM exists on both TikTok and Douyin, but it is probably less common on TikTok. On Douyin, you can hear many videos with BGM that are quite harsh (maybe the viewers don't feel it), and I especially dislike it when someone watches Douyin loudly in public transportation. Douyin also has some things that I can't understand, such as some videos that always include laughter that makes people laugh to death, and people always like to shout when speaking. All of these make me feel that Douyin is noisy. Currently, I rarely see these on TikTok. I rarely even see people speaking loudly in videos. Many videos are simply recordings, with no loud voices or strange BGM and laughter.
Regarding filters, the videos I watched on TikTok, especially the ones about natural scenery, had obvious filter effects, but I didn't notice many others. Even for people, I rarely saw filters being used. Of course, considering that I didn't come across any videos of beautiful women, this conclusion may be hasty.
In terms of live streaming, there are also some differences, but I haven't watched other people's live streams much. I don't have the habit of watching live streams for product promotions, so I can't comment much on that.
The types of content I like to watch the most on TikTok are mainly two categories - Indian street food and extreme sports. I also watch the other types mentioned earlier, but I came to TikTok initially for these two types of videos.
Indian Street Food#
Some friends may know that Liu Yong's updates have been relatively slow this year due to work reasons, and he hasn't updated the traditional program "Indian Street Food." Out of curiosity, I decided to find Indian food bloggers myself, and the first thing that came to my mind was TikTok. Street food doesn't require long production time, and the recording time is not very long either. It is also suitable for short video platforms like TikTok. If you are interested, you can search for "indian street food" on TikTok.
The more I watch, the more curious I become. How did Indian food culture develop? Because in my impression, their street food often includes three things: tomatoes, onions, and eggs. Why do they love these foods so much, and it seems that India has its own interpretation of curry. Later, I tried to find books that introduce the development and evolution of Indian food culture, but I couldn't find a suitable one.
Extreme Sports#
I have to admit that the other type of video I watch a lot on TikTok is extreme sports. For example, bungee jumping, skydiving, wingsuit flying, BMX, windsurfing, motocross, parkour, skateboarding, and so on. I am actually afraid of heights, but whenever I see those challenging sports, I find them interesting and exciting. I also want to try them myself, but I know that I definitely lack the courage. However, watching others challenge extreme sports is really shocking and exhilarating. When I was a child, I really wanted a skateboard, but because I injured my hand while riding a bicycle before, my family didn't agree to my request. Later, I finally experienced skateboarding at someone else's house and realized how difficult it was. I had a hard time just standing on it, let alone cruising on the streets. So I always think that those who can skateboard are really amazing. They can control the center of gravity of their bodies so well. Especially the various tricks in street skateboarding in "U-shaped pools," they are really cool. Many of them look like they are in their teens, but their movements are very skilled and effortless.
Final Thoughts#
Mainland Chinese users face many difficulties in using TikTok, and non-mainland regions also have certain restrictions on using Douyin. I can't say that TikTok is necessarily more fun than Douyin, but TikTok does make me feel more relaxed. There is no one shouting at me, and no one lecturing me. On this app, I can freely browse videos that interest me and feel a relaxed atmosphere. Maybe one day I will feel that TikTok suddenly becomes boring and loses its initial freshness. When I look back at this article at that time, I may have different experiences.