[Overview]

TikTok, according to DataReportal (2021), has 700 million monthly active users
and 2.6 billion downloads. TikTok's increasing global user base has made it a
success with users of all ages. The key to this enormous popularity must be
TikTok's capacity to provide customized service to its users, as shown by the
creation of a "For you" newsfeed for each user, which suggests videos based
on each user's preferences. TikTok's recommendation engine enables this
service by combining two algorithms known as content-based learning and
collaborative filtering.
[Getting to know a new user - First videos recommendations]

When a user initially joins into the app, they are asked to choose their preferred topics or
areas for more video material. The software will create an initial feed and continue refining
recommendations depending on the user's interactions with an initial selection of videos. If no
category is selected, TikTok will offer a general feed of popular videos. The popularity of a
video depends on the points following these engagement metrics (Su et al. 2021):

Σ Total score = (likes)+ 2(comments) + 3(shares) + 5(completion rate) + 6(rewatch)

The video will get more views if the sum of these points exceeds a certain value (Henny 2020).

Initially, when the system is still learning about the users' content preferences, the system will
produce an initial suggestion based on the users' very first interactions (i.e. video likes,
comments, replays,...) After a period of usage, when TikTok has accumulated and stored
relevant information about users, it will employ two techniques to filter obtained data and
recommend videos to viewers, consisting of content-based learning and collaborative filtering
(Basch et al. 2021; Zhao et al. 2021).
[Algorithm #1: Content-based learning]

This algorithm recommends videos based on user activity like sharing, commenting, and
rewatching. All user-related data will be stored in a vector format. Profile vectors reflect past
activities, whilst item vectors contain video data information such as genre, tiktokers, and
hashtags. Using content-based filtering, the cosine similarity computing the similarity between
the profile vector (A) and item vectors (B ) can be calculated by the formula in the illustration
(Guan et al. 2019).

Using this calculated value, the videos are sorted in decreasing order, sequentially one of the
following two methods is utilized to provide recommendations:

Top-n approach: where the top n videos are recommended (Here n can be decided by the
TikTok).

Rating scale approach: Where a threshold is set and all the videos above that threshold are
recommended.
[Algorithm #2: Collaborative Filtering]

TikTok users will sometimes be recommended with new topics, which TikTok claimed that the
users might be interested in. The techniques behind this algorithm are user-user and item-item
collaborative filtering.

2.1. User-user collaborative filtering

This kind of collaborative filtering focuses on calculating the degree of similarity between
users. It then identifies the most comparable users and suggests items that these similar users
have previously enjoyed. Now that TikTok has the score for people in the profile vector, it can
forecast the score for other users. TikTok then compares both users' scores for the videos they
both watch and finally suggests videos having highest scores to each other.
[Algorithm #2: Collaborative Filtering] (continue)

2.2. Item-item collaborative filtering

If the user-user collaborative filtering approaches the recommendation by evaluating the

similarities between users, item-item collaborative filtering calculates the similarity between each
pair of videos (Hasan & Roy 2019).

By comparing the resemblance of two videos, TikTok can suggest similar videos to viewers.
Unlike user-user collaborative filtering, in this technique, TikTok utilizes the weighted sum of
evaluations from "item-neighbors", which focuses on the video interactions made by other
users in the platform, rather than "user-neighbors" that concentrates on the other users’
previous interactions.

This implies that when TikTok compares videos, users will be offered comparable items such
as genre, hashtag or content. For example, user A recently rewatched a video with the
hashtag #covidnhanhdidi and the song “COVID nhanh đi đi”, then he will constantly be
suggested with similar videos having the same hashtag or music. This algorithm would keep
users engaged with their site and spending more time on their video preferences.
[Conclusion]

In summary, TikTok's recommendation engine works by monitoring users'

behavior on the platform and identifying similarities between them. The
platform has benefited substantially from two main algorithms: content-
based learning and collaborative filtering, which both assist in
recommending the most relevant videos to users; thereby enhancing their
app experience.