TikTok is powered by a recommendation engine — now, you can rent it

TikTok’s interface is perfectly optimized to gather user sentiment data (translation: it knows how to keep you hooked)

You’ve almost certainly seen a viral TikTok video.

Last year, the short video platform saw 800m+ new downloads, the most of any app.

The driving force behind its catchy dance vids, cooking shows, and cringe dad comedy…

… is an AI-powered recommendation engine

According to Financial Times, TikTok’s parent company ByteDance has turned this algorithm and other tools into a service other companies can pay to use.

It’s called BytePlus and offers:

• Personalized recommendation tools
• Automated speech/text translation
• Real-time video effects
• Computer vision tech with 18-point body detection tracking (useful for fashion companies)

Various clients are already using it…

… including Goat (US retailer), WeGo (Singaporean travel site), and Chilibeli (Indonesian e-commerce), per FT.

ByteDance is looking to diversify its business ahead of an IPO that could value the company (including TikTok) at $400B.

This isn’t its only new product: TikTok is testing a celebrity shoutout tool for its creators.

Based on how much The Hustle has spent on Cameo, that could be the real cash cow.