Clicks Rule: The Foundation for Unchecked Expansion
December 22, 2021
TikTok foods. You laugh. Maybe rethink that? What about TikTok financial services? Sounds crazy, right? A China-centric company financing users around the world? What about TikTok shopping? That makes sense, doesn’t it? How can short videos provide a platform for expansion, more specifically, unchecked expansion?
Clicks.
I read “In 2021, the Internet Went for TikTok, Space and Beyond.” I have been around online services since Ellen Shedlarz, the information specialist at Booz, Allen & Hamilton, sat me down and walked me through commercial databases. I think that was in 1973, maybe 1974. I learned that traffic was a big deal. No clicks, no nothing.
What’s the king of clicks now? The data compiled by a trade association like the old American Petroleum Institute, Chem Abstracts, or Medline? Nope. What about Facebook, Google, or Yahoo? Nope.
The big dog is TikTok, the outfit that for a short time Microsoft or Oracle would buy. How did that work out? Right, it didn’t.
The write up explains:
Google [was] dethroned by the young ‘padawan’ TikTok. Let’s start with our Top Domains Ranking and 2021 brought us a very interesting duel for the Number 1 spot in our global ranking. Google.com (which includes Maps, Translate, Photos, Flights, Books, and News, among others) ended 2020 as the undefeated leader in our ranking — from September to December of last year it was always on top. Back then TikTok.com was only ranked #7 or #8.
What outfits dominate the majority of mostly counted Internet clicks whether by humanoid or happy racks of mobile phones and tireless bots? The answer is TikTok, the service mostly beyond the comprehension of people over the age of 15. (I am just joking, you art history majors who are now TikTok consultants. Humor. Chill.)
I have created a table based on the CloudFlare data which — like all click stream numbers — requires handfuls of salt and a liter of soy sauce;
| Top Domains 2021 | Top Domains 2020 |
| TikTok | The Google |
| The Google | The Zuck |
| The Zuck | Microsoft |
| Microsoft | Apple |
| Apple | Netflix |
| Amazon | Amazon |
| Netflix | TikTok |
| YouTube | YouTube |
| The Tweeter | |
| The Tweeter |
Three observations as you ponder the alleged loss of position by Googzilla and the worst company in America, according to a Yahoo poll:
- TikTok is number one. Where does that user data go? What can one do with such data? What has TikTok learned from its monitoring of the ageing and increasingly clumsy creature known to my research team as Googzilla. (Did you know Googzilla wants to date Snow White?)
- The data from clicks makes it possible for those with access to the data to build out their services; for example, Apple into financial services with the really classy metal credit card and App Store.
- Clicks translate into monopoly jets. Let me explain. The more clicks, the more data, and the more data, the clearer the signals about moving into a new stream of revenue.
Will the TikTok service remain at the top? Nah, nothing is forever in the one click world. But for now, the message sent to the Google and Zuck is one that is best expressed in a holiday card like this one from Etsy:
These products are explained in detail on TikTok. Eating disorders, kitchen envy, and gastrointestinal distress will make it easy to cook, eat, buy, and suffer in 30 second increments. Yep, it’s a TikTok “buy now” innovation. Neither the Google nor the Zuck have a now answer to the China backed service. Where do those data go?
Stephen E Arnold, December 22, 2021
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