TikTok was recently crowned as the world’s most popular website in 2021. The video-focused social networking app hosts several short-form videos across a variety of genres. The app beat out internet big names like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Netflix and Amazon. A report by domo.com said around 167 million TikTok videos get streamed each minute every day. In comparison, Google, which handles about 90 percent of all internet searches, conducts 5.7 million searches every minute.

Much of the most-visited app’s success hinges on its secretive algorithm. The company’s algorithm aims to create “user value,” “long-term user value,” “creator value,” and “platform value” as translated from Mandarin, reported the NYT.

Also read: Russia fines Twitter, Facebook owner Meta and TikTok over banned content

The goals were found on a document titled ‘TikTok Algo 101,’ which NYT managed to review. The app is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, which also owns the Chinese sister app to TikTok, called ByteDance.

As per previous reports by The Wall Street Journal, the key to assessing a user’s interest in the app is by calculating the length of time he or she spends looking at the video content. Re-watching the content also makes a difference in TikTok’s scoring.

According to the NYT, the document lays out clearly that the company’s “ultimate goal” is to add daily viewers by increasing “retention” and “time spent.” TikTok wants its users, mostly teens and young kids, to spend as long as possible on the platform and keep coming back as often as possible.

“This system means that watch time is key. The algorithm tries to get people addicted rather than giving them what they really want,” Guillaume Chaslot, the Founder of Algo Transparency, told NYT after reviewing the TikTok documents.

Also read: TikTok to be in US Congressional hotseat over school-trashing content

“Each video a kid watches, TikTok gains a piece of information on him,” he added.

The app’s sophisticated algorithm ensures that every user gets recommended more videos that would make them stay on the platform for longer. And the longer a user spends on the app, and the more videos they watch, the better the algorithm gets at recommending more videos to them.

While the app has recently come under fire for possibly sharing the data of its users with the Chinese government, something for which the app was wholly banned in India, perhaps the real risk that apps like TikTok have are the threat that they possess for addiction of teenagers and young children.

Also read: Complete list of 59 Chinese apps banned by Indian government

(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)