How TikTok’s Algorithm Beats Facebook & Co. for Attention Under the Theory of Escapism: A Network Sample Analysis of Austrian, German and Swiss Users

TikTok was the undisputed rising star of Social Media in 2020. Although the app has started to rival Facebook for attention and the entire social media landscape regarding monthly active user growth, academic research on TikTok’s secret to success is still scarce. This paper seeks to contribute to research by trying to identify how TikTok outperforms its rival with an advanced algorithm and inspire more academics to investigate the subject. A literature review will provide context, followed by a study amongst TikTok users in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. Results show that TikTok has overtaken Facebook by an average of 30 min amongst teenagers’ daily app usage. TikTok’s matchmaking algorithm plays a major role in this battle for attention by not only focusing on a user’s friendship network, but on the user’s explicit behaviour. Evaluating the theory of escapism as a motivator to use the app seems to suggest that TikTok outperforms Facebook based on content related criteria. Since both applications apply matchmaking on the basis of user generated content, it is suggested that TikTok’s user focused algorithm outranks that of Facebook. TikTok thus marks a trend change in social media by putting user centric algorithmic content curation before peer-network driven considerations.