It may sound surprising, but one thing YouTube still hasn’t fully understood is why TikTok keeps growing so fast and dominating the attention of so many users. A lot of people assume the main reason is short-form videos, but that explanation is incomplete and often misleading. In my own experience, I come from YouTube, where my audience is used to long-form content, and the moment I encountered long videos on TikTok, I realized many of them are exceptionally good — not just the short ones.
The truth is that TikTok’s algorithm works in a fundamentally different way from YouTube’s. While YouTube still relies heavily on subscription history, channel authority, and a mix of personalized recommendations based on long-term behavior, TikTok focuses almost entirely on instant, real-time user feedback. Every second a user spends watching a video becomes a signal. Every swipe, pause, rewatch, share, or tiny interaction is treated as valuable data. This creates an environment where even new creators with zero followers can have their videos pushed to thousands or millions of people if the content simply performs well in the first few seconds.
Another thing that sets TikTok apart is its willingness to test content aggressively. The platform constantly shows users videos outside their normal “bubble,” exposing them to creators and topics they would never have searched for. This increases novelty, surprise, and variety, making the feed feel alive and unpredictable — something that YouTube’s more structured recommendation system struggles to replicate. Instead of showing only what the user already likes, TikTok tries to figure out what the user might like before the user even realizes it.
TikTok also encourages immediate creator–viewer interaction in ways that YouTube currently doesn't match. Features like stitches, duets, and direct replies allow content to evolve organically, turning trends into massive collaborative chains. Combined with an algorithm that rewards participation, this creates a culture where creators feel more visible and viewers feel more connected.
In addition to that, TikTok’s design is built around fast discovery. Every time a user opens the app, they are instantly thrown into new content without needing to search, click through menus, or browse subscriptions. The platform removes friction, making content consumption effortless.
And that’s where the real secret lies. Even without hitting the like button, simply by holding the viewer’s attention — even with zero interaction — TikTok’s algorithm immediately interprets that as a strong positive signal. It understands that the person is genuinely interested in that type of content, regardless of whether they leave a like, comment, or follow the creator. Because of that, the platform continues recommending more videos from that same creator, and also from other channels that produce similar material. TikTok makes these associations quickly, efficiently, and with remarkable precision.
This stands in sharp contrast to YouTube, which has a persistent habit of burying content — and not just a little, but deeply burying it — often leaving creators and entire channels invisible for years. It’s a system that frequently ends up frustrating the audience as well. People end up missing exactly the kind of content they would love, simply because YouTube refuses to show it unless the viewer jumps through a series of algorithmic hoops.
Just the other day, on YouTube, I stumbled across a channel with more than half a million subscribers, active for many years. During one of the videos, the host read a comment from a viewer saying: “Wow, I just discovered this channel now. It’s exactly the type of content I love, and yet YouTube never recommended it to me. I’m subscribing today for the first time.” That’s YouTube in a nutshell. It’s as if the platform suffers from a major deficiency in its recommendation system — too afraid to suggest anything outside its pre-approved bubble. Instead of exploring variety, it keeps circling around the same creators and the same topics, reinforcing a narrow loop.
This overly protective attitude ends up suffocating the platform. YouTube has become obsessed with safety mechanisms, tracking technologies, strict punishments, and ban policies. In real life — at least here in Brazil — there’s nothing even remotely comparable to this kind of severe digital censorship. But within YouTube, one misstep can bury a channel forever. These choices slowly choke the ecosystem, and at the same time open space for newer, more flexible platforms with modern policies to rise. YouTube’s constant fear of losing its “credibility” ends up pushing creators and viewers away.
Nowadays, late at night, I always end up on TikTok. I know I’ll find something interesting to learn, something new to watch, something surprising — no matter where the content comes from. Everything YouTube bans or buries eventually migrates to TikTok. And there, people can grow, gain visibility, build an audience, showcase skills, and run massive livestreams. Conspiracy theories? Plenty. Artificial Intelligence? Everywhere. Creativity? Overflowing.
I once created a channel on YouTube that was monetized and later banned, many years ago, simply because it was “dark,” meaning I didn’t appear on camera. I tried to question the decision and even talked about the future that was coming — a future made of short and long videos created with AI. They told me they would “never accept that kind of content.” To me, that was the peak of ignorance.
So, in the end, I can’t help but feel that YouTube’s human review team is made up of people who live inside a very narrow bubble — almost like privileged kids, raised in wealthy or comfortable middle-class environments, making judgments based on their own limited worldview. Their language, their standards, their sense of what is “acceptable” or “appropriate” seems to come from a place far removed from the reality of most creators. They simply don’t tolerate anything that falls outside their personal frame of reference.
What YouTube needs is real diversity. Not just a team of sheltered young employees making decisions for billions of users. The platform desperately lacks critical thinking, cultural depth, and reflection. I genuinely hope that at some point, someone on YouTube’s side comes across this kind of feedback and actually stops to evaluate their internal practices — their hiring choices, their moderation logic, their work culture — and tries to improve. Because the gap between the platform and real people is growing wider every year.
It was already strange enough when Google abandoned Orkut and basically opened the door for Facebook to dominate. That decision alone showed how disconnected they can be from the cultural pulse of their own users. And now, the same pattern seems to repeat itself with YouTube. If the platform doesn’t go through a massive reform — a reform of mindset, of structure, and of priorities — it might just end up losing ground the same way. Especially when even today YouTube still clings to the childish idea that TikTok’s success is “because of short videos.” That kind of thinking reveals an extremely narrow, almost naïve understanding of how digital culture evolves.
If they continue operating with this same mentality, the door they once opened for Facebook might become the door they close on themselves — leaving endless room for TikTok and future platforms to take over entirely.
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