In 2021, the Internet Went for TikTok, Space and Beyond

Cloudflare blog: 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.

Top 10 -- Most popular domains (late) 2021

1 TikTok.com
2 Google.com
3 Facebook.com
4 Microsoft.com
5 Apple.com
6 Amazon.com
7 Netflix.com
8 YouTube.com
9 Twitter.com
10 WhatsApp.com

Top 10 -- Most popular domains (late) 2020

1 Google.com
2 Facebook.com
3 Microsoft.com
4 Apple.com
5 Netflix.com*
6 Amazon.com
7 TikTok.com
8 YouTube.com
9 Instagram.com *
10 Twitter.com

2021 told a different story. It was on February 17, 2021, that TikTok got the top spot for a day. Back in March, TikTok got a few more days and also in May, but it was after August 10, 2021, that TikTok took the lead on most days. There were some days when Google was #1, but October and November were mostly TikTok's days, including on Thanksgiving (November 25) and Black Friday (November 26).

the link is wrong

[tannhaus]

It's an article about a maker of spyware...not a doman ranking

Re: the link is wrong

[Anonymouse Cowtard]

It's intentionally wrong to reflect the fact that 2021 has just been a complete waste of time.

Re: the link is wrong

[Z00L00K]

And I still wonder about why Space and beyond is mentioned:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=... [youtube.com]

Re: the link is wrong

[algaeman]

Makers of spyware. Every single one of those top ten sites is sucking PII from you for marketing purposes.

Wrong article

[leapis]

The wrong article was linked. The correct one is https://blog.cloudflare.com/popular-domains-year-in-review-2021/ [cloudflare.com]

Re:Wrong article

[Aighearach]

Thank you!

our ranking is derived from our public DNS resolver 1.1.1.1 and so it's not related to the number of unique users or visitors it gets per month

The headline should be, TikTok the least-cached domain of those resolved through cloudflare which is a much different metric than "popular."

TikTok is what Youtube used to be

[Turkinolith]

TikTok is where I can go watch some quick videos from content creators I like. It's what Youtube used to be like, before they started saturating it with adds everywhere.

Re:TikTok is what Youtube used to be

[war4peace]

Personal experience with YouTube (anecdotal, I know, but indulge me):
I have posted quite a few videos on Youtube over the years, although I am not a Youtuber per se. What I mean is, I don't monetize my videos anymore, because Youtube considered that 1 dollar and 67 cents I made in 3 years is too much, therefore they said I am no longer eligible for monetization unless I achieve some stupid targets. The videos are usually short. Also, they fall into various wildly different categories, such as gaming (many different game captures, usually funny and weird scenes I happen to stumble upon while playing) and tech (mostly 3D printing stuff). Recently, Youtube's (stupid and flawed) algorithms have begun to pester me with video removals. Examples:
1. A (public) video which I had posted years ago (from a game now defunct) showing an AI bug, a NPC stuck in a turret.
2. A (unlisted) video I posted a couple months ago, showing a mechanical issue with a 3D printer, where the hotend assembly strongly vibrates while moving in Y axis.

Both videos were restricted for the same reason:

We have reviewed your content and determined that it may not be suitable for viewers under the age of 18, per our Community Guidelines. As a result, we've age-restricted the following content

Yes, because a PG-13 game and a 3D printing video clearly contain mature content.

I appealed both and they were reinstated, as a matter of fact all videos were wrongly age-restricted. this tells me that YouTube has tuned its algorithms to offload work to video publishers. False positives? So what, we're going to let content creators review them and appeal if we fuck up. That way, we don't need to hire people to review flagged videos, only those which are appealed. Profit!

So, yeah, maybe I should switch, despite my disgust related to TikTok, which I perceive as some sort of video-centric Twitter.

Re:

[jmke]

youtube sent out a communication about a year ago that asks you to age rate your channel. I just set it to "none child friendly content" and be done with it.

Re:

[war4peace]

I had done that. Everything was up-to-date.
Again... I was not asking for a solution or a fix, because there aren't any meaningful ones. Their algorithms are built to offload curating work to content creators.

Re: TikTok is what Youtube used to be

[e3m4n]

Tik tok forces users to hold their phones vertically like a fucking video retard. Its widescreen not tallscreen you fucking wannabe videographers. By definition their content is total shit. Horse blinders are for horses because they piss themselves and run away if something appears in their peripheral vision. To intentionally film with horse blinders in narrow screen is telling of the avg intelligence of their members.

Re:

[junglee_iitk]

Why so angry?

The camera is round. Why does it take a vertical photo anyway?

People hold their phones vertically. It is how the phones have been ergonomically designed. TikTok just shows videos in vertical format because it is easier to view short videos one after the another. If you are watching movie, sure it makes sence to rotate the phone.

Re:

[TranquilVoid]

Interesting take, thank you. I always figured TikTok made a streamlined version of YouTube, a combination of Facebook dopamine-hit scrolling and videos. YouTube (at least how I use it on a desktop) is better suited to longer form videos. They may also have an advantage for now, as a Chinese company, of being able to play looser with copyright.

Re: TikTok is what Youtube used to be

[Z00L00K]

Ads on youtube? You must have missed some protective measures like uBlock.

Re: TikTok is what Youtube used to be

[e3m4n]

Wished it worked on my streaming boxes. Most of the time thats where I watch anything. Aside from a few things we follow, mostly we use it for vacation research. So we watch it on the widescreen. Recently they added ads to the end of the videos too.

Re:

[jmke]

doesn't work on smart Apps for most platforms. PiHole does nothing.

No comparison, from what I've seen?

[King_TJ]

I dunno... Maybe I'm just not seeing the right TikTok content shared and promoted? But all I ever see on that platform are annoying little clips of someone trying to be funny or trying to make a single point, with music playing loudly in the background as the "theme song" for whatever they're trying to do?

YouTube may suck because of all the ads. But I learn a lot from the material people post there, like how to do various kinds of vehicle repairs or appliance repairs. Other times, it's something like a video I watched recently where a guy compared 7 or 8 different brands of Mac compatible docking stations to see how well they behaved with dual monitors and other devices attached.

I'm not sure I ever came across something educational like that, streaming from TikTok?

Popular? Maybe not

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Microsoft isn't popular: it's the domain millions of shmuks have to hit every day at work because somehow it's impossible to have email, an agenda and a chat window without them nowadays.

Google isn't popular: it's the domain billions of zombie computers hit behind the scene when the users visit a site on the internet - because somehow it's impossible to be on the internet without hitting google.com in one way or another.

Facebook? Same thing. But it is popular in its own right I guess. You'll note that popular doesn't equate with good taste, but that's nothing new...

Re:Popular? Maybe not

[war4peace]

You'll note that popular doesn't equate with good taste, but that's nothing new...

Was that ever any different, throughout history?

Re:

[phantomfive]

Google still has a search engine that is rather popular.

I think they mean kids

[cjonslashdot]

By "the Internet", they must be talking about kids. I don't know any adults who use TikTok.

Basically, China is winning the Internet

[DontBeAMoran]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

"TikTok, known in China as Douyin (Chinese: ; pinyin: Duyn), is a video-focused social networking service owned by Chinese company ByteDance."

If you thought Facebook was a problem, wait until TikTok starts doing the same spying-and-tracking shit everywhere you go.

Re:Basically, China is winning the Internet

[Mr0bvious]

> starts

You're funny.

Re:

[DontBeAMoran]

Indeed. My mistake.

Bye bye USA

[viperidaenz]

Also marks the year a Chinese company became more popular than an American one.
Considering it's only 3 years old and has 2 billion active users already, I wouldn't be surprised if it overtook Facebook

Re:

[phantomfive]

I wouldn't be surprised if it overtook Facebook

It's more like Youtube, right?

Re: Bye bye USA

[e3m4n]

Considering its government control, they probably force all the kids in school to sign up in order to boost its ratings.

Thank God Slashdot is not on that list.

[reloc]

Thank God Slashdot is not on that list.