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Attention Factory: The Story of TikTok and China's ByteDance by [Matthew Brennan, Valentina Segovia, Rita Liao]

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Matthew Brennan

Attention Factory: The Story of TikTok and China's ByteDance Kindle Edition

by Matthew Brennan (Author), Valentina Segovia (Illustrator), Rita Liao (Editor) Format: Kindle Edition

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“an essential read” – TechCrunch

In 2012, TikTok’s parent company ByteDance was just a handful of geeks working out of a scrappy four-bedroom apartment in Beijing. Today, it is the world’s fastest-growing tech behemoth worth in excess of $100 billion, unrecognizable from its humble beginnings.

Thousands of articles have been written about TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance, but no one has told the complete story. Until now. Brennan’s book documents for the first time the ascendancy and missteps of a company that has forever changed the way we think about China and Chinese technology.

A creative blend of storytelling and analysis, interwoven with captivating anecdotes of TikTok, rare photos of ByteDance’s original team, incisive analysis and telling infographics, “Attention Factory” is an essential read for those looking to understand how ideas in the American and Chinese internet worlds collided, coincided and converged throughout the past decade.

Why was ByteDance, a Chinese company, the one to build TikTok?
Exactly who is Zhang Yiming, the company’s mysterious founder?
Which little known growth hacks did ByteDance use in their rise to the top?
Does TikTok herald a new era of Chinese companies challenging Silicon Valley?
How does the legendary TikTok algorithm work?

Discover how recommendation engines, content operations, and good old China-style growth hacking hold the key to this company’s success.

Brennan draws upon interviews with current and former employees and competitors, together with extensive research in both Chinese and English. The book’s sources number in the multiple hundreds, forging a sweeping narrative packed with original insight and analysis that simply cannot be found elsewhere.

Get the inside story on TikTok now.

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321 pages
Language

English
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Publication date

October 9, 2020
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Matthew Brennan is an author and internationally recognised speaker who specialises in Chinese mobile internet technology and innovation. His opinions have featured across global media, including Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, BBC, The Financial Times and Forbes. For several years, his company China Channel has organised the largest annual WeChat digital marketing conference in China for international brands.

Matthew has delivered dozens of presentations for many prestigious companies, including Google, Tencent, Walmart, Visa, LinkedIn, Boston Consulting Group and more. Originally from London, England, Matthew speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese having been based in mainland China for sixteen years.

For more information about Matthew and his speaking career, visit: http://matthewbrennan.info/

--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08L1578B6
Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 9, 2020
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 10399 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 321 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #541,285 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #93 in Media & Communications Industry (Kindle Store)
- #96 in Internet Culture
- #124 in Media & Communications Industry (Books)

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4.4 259 ratings

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Matthew Brennan

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Matthew Brennan is devoted to decoding the mysteries of Chinese mobile internet technology and innovation. His opinions have been widely quoted and featured across global media including Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, BBC, CNBC, The Financial Times, and Forbes.

Originally from London England, Matthew had been based in mainland China for 16 years, speaks fluent Mandarin, and works as managing director for Shanghai consultancy China Channel. As a conference speaker, Matthew has delivered over a hundred presentations across the globe for companies including Google, Tencent, Walmart, Visa, LinkedIn, and Boston Consulting Group.

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Amazon Customer

Definitely one of the best business books i've read in years!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 10, 2020

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As a strategy Consultant of KuaiShow (TikTok Chinese version Douyin's biggest domestic competitor) and a venture capitalist in China, this book suprised me big time (as it's written by a foreigner) on not only how detailed it is about HOW the rise of ByteDance and TikTok, but also how insightful it is about WHY the rise of ByteDance and TikTok.

For example, Matthew says in the book it takes two paradigm shifts to happen at once (at 2012) for something as big as Bytedance to rise, change in content distribution mechanism (from social graph to machine learning) and the change in computational platform (from PC to smartphone).

How Ture.

It makes me think if i were in 2012, on what circumstances would i have had believed Yiming's story and invested in the company? At least I needed to know what happened at Google and Youtube in 2011 (mentioned in the book), they added machine learning in their recommendation system and the engagement rate skyrocketed (finally crossed the chasm between a tool and a network).

There are also detailed stoires on how Kelly Zhang, the product Queen and her young team took months trying to find product market fit when Douyin first lanched in 2016. The product, obvisouly was a copycat of musical.ly, but the market was different, the initial market was beautiful young lady in art school (what we call in Chinese "xiaojiejie").

And right after Douyin found its PMF, Yiming pour HUGE resources into it, went ALL IN, and ended the war in 6 months. One of the best busienss case in years.

This book have it all, detailed stoires on how things evolve and business insights on why things evolve the way they do. Definitely one of the best business books i've read in years.

2 people found this helpful

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Diego Delizia

A fast book but essential background reading

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 8, 2022

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While you can't accuse this book of having a lot of depth (after all, TikTok is still becoming a central part of our social media landscape), it gives essential background about the genesis of this phenomenon.

One person found this helpful

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Alireza Aghasi

A must read for anyone in tech and media

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 18, 2020

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This book is the continuation of Matthew Brennan’s great work on China Channel and China Tech Talk. He is an authoritative voice in Chinese tech scene in English language. Follow him on twitter.

And about the book:
I highly suggest anyone interested in tech and media to study this book. It tells the story of creation and growth of an AI-native company. Many people consider TikTok -& other ByteDance- products as Social Media; but in reality the “social” part is almost non-existent in the way FB and IG are social. ByteDance got rid of Social Graph in favor of a recommendation algorithm and that’s one of their secret sauces in their craft. Read the book and you’ll learn a lot of the delicacies of ByteDance way of growth.

For the ones who intend to read the book, I highly suggest taking this route:

1- First read chapters 1-3 of AI Superpowers by Kaifu Lee (it gives you a historical background on Chinese internet ecosystem)

2- Listen to episodes 19, 66 & 70 of China Tech Talk to get an historic perspective on how ByteDance was evaluated by the writer. (a lot of fascinating discussions in these podcast episodes)

3- Read the current book

Feel free to neglect my recommendations and start reading Attention Factory right away!

11 people found this helpful

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DC

damn good read

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 27, 2022

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detailed info from a real china veteran expert, and really well written to make you want to keep turning the pages!

One person found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

One of the books on founders

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 30, 2022

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I've ready quite a few books about a business founding. This is one of the best written and captivating one yet. The author has a real talent for writing and story telling. Every time I open its pages I feel like I've jumped into a rive of words that I just can't help but being rush along. If you love these kinds of books. You'll love this one.

One person found this helpful

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Amol

Most detailed content on rise of Tiktok

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 22, 2020

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This book is one of the best books I have read in 2020. Super detailed about rise of Tiktok. On surface TikTok might look like an overnight success, but book shows reality of founder's struggle and strategy over last decade that lead to TikTok. For every founder this is must read book.

Matthew Brennan's has amazing knowledge of China's app ecosystem and that clearly shows in the book. Books mentions year by year account of ByteDance and different app launches in last decade. Few interesting details captured in the book:

- Rivalry between Tencent and ByteDance specially in last few years
- Yiming Zhang's early startup experience that helped in making strategy for ByteDance
- TikTok's expansion strategy in difficult Japan and US
- How music is catalyst for creating viral videos and unleashing creativity
- Amazing AI based recommendation engine of TikTok
- Initial success of Musical.ly setting good example for TikTok
- Learnings from success of Dubsmash
- A.me's strategy for learning from initial influencers and eventually renamed to Douyin

4 people found this helpful

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Michael Michelini

Educational and a fascinating story of Tiktok & growth hacking

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 18, 2020

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Great compilation of the history of TikTok for English readers. Book was extensive with footnotes, images, that read like a story book but also full of facts. In addition to the story, the Attention Factory also gives strategic insights on the positioning of short videos in a world of search and social and e-commerce.

Read the 80% of it right away on a flight and couldn’t put it down the following Saturday. You will be educated while also entertained on the competitiveness of Chinese internet companies, and come to understand the coming expansion of these businesses on a global scale.

Gave me ideas on marketing my own apps and web services, and shared with business associates who also got inspiration for growth hacking.

7 people found this helpful

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Ivar Zeile

Eye opening to say the least

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 23, 2021

Verified Purchase

Absolutely fascinating and fast read that nails the subject on the head. I dismissed TikTok right off the bat, and wa-la, now I now know exactly why that was the case and that nothing is as it seems in the world of social media, video content and, ah, human life. Great job by the author in distilling this all into the most fundamental, well researched elements. What's amazing is that its not more widely distributed......yet, its definitely part of today's culture in which nothing lasts and success can take time, even if your ambitions are just to be an internet star.

2 people found this helpful

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Marcelo Cabral Beranbé

melhor livro sobre tik tok

Reviewed in Brazil 🇧🇷 on January 28, 2022

Verified Purchase

Livro discorre sobre a saga da Bytedance. Faz uma profunda análise sobre mercado de propaganda digital e os principais aplicativos de engajamento social, vídeos e busca on line

One person found this helpful

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HonorTheCall

Must read for all startup founders.

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on October 27, 2020

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This book is a must read for startup founders, especially outside of China. It is quite the page turner and goes into depth on how TikTok started in China under a different (local) name, almost failed and then took the world by storm.
There are plenty of lessons for new founders on how run a company, hire the best and thing strategically.
Highly recommended.

Ed Sander

A must read about a unique company and an app taking over the internet

Reviewed in Germany 🇩🇪 on October 30, 2020

Verified Purchase

Brennan's book starts at the early beginnings of the company. Based on research in Chinese documents and conversations with employees of Bytedance, he describes the history of founder Zhang Yiming and his company in a pleasant way. The book is a pleasant and accessible read. It is not a dry summary of facts and the narrative style is sometimes reminiscent of Evan Osnos' writings in The New Yorker. Most chapters start with an atmosphere setting like “A faint hum emanated from the room ahead” or “It was bitterly cold that day”. While I sometimes had my reservations about how Brennan could have known that certain events and conversations had taken place as he describes them, that's a relatively insignificant caveat to an approach that makes the book a lot more compelling to read. Chapters also begin with short timelines that list the major chronological events in each chapter. Quite handy if you want to look something up later.

Attention Factory is divided into two parts. The Back End covers the personal background of Bytedance founder Zhang Yiming, the early years of the company and Jinri Toutiao in four chapters. This section also discusses the technical workings of “recommendation engines” in detail. That may seem like a boring topic, but the way it is explained is accessible and it is essential to understand Bytedance's apps. The strength of their apps lies in presenting the right content to the user, based on his own viewing and sharing behavior (to other platforms) as well as that of others. This is precisely why apps like TikTok are so addictive; they show you exactly what you like or find interesting. This background material is essential to understanding Bytedance's success. You can still hear people describe TikTok as a social network, but much more than that it is actually a content and entertainment app. The 'social graph' that is so important in social networks such as Facebook hardly plays a role in Bytedance's apps.

The second part of the book, The Front End, deals almost entirely with the short video apps Musical.ly, Douyin and TikTok in another four chapters. Brennan gives a brief introduction to the rise of short video and the success of Musical.ly. An eye-opener was how the latter app, which was eventually bought by Bytedance and integrated in Douyin / TikTok, was very much 'inspired' by a less well-known video app developed in Paris called Mindie. Brennan's description of how retailers install additional apps on smartphones before selling them also made my jaw drop.

In the two parts, Brennan clearly explains, based on facts and interpretations, how Bytedance and its apps could become such a huge success. But how do you wrap-up writing a book about a company and an app that are constantly in the news in 2020? The app was banned in India and Trump threatened a ban if TikTok would not be split from Bytedance in the US. This case has been dragging on for several. It was a dilemma that Brennan faced.
Given that the TikTok affair in the United States did not seem to be coming to an end any time soon, he took the wise decision not to wait for the conclusion. The battle between Trump and TikTok is therefore only mentioned briefly in the short prologue and epilogue and Brennan’s book ends after the enormous growth that TikTok experienced worldwide during the social distancing period of the start of the corona crisis.
In the prologue Brennan states that he did not want to contribute to the growing stream of articles and discussions that have arisen thanks to the 'tech cold war'. He mainly wanted to focus on the questions 'Why TikTok? Why Bytedance? Why short video?'. An understandable choice, although I personally regret that Brennan has not devoted a final chapter to the international battles that Bytedance has found itself in and could have an impact on the future of the company.

The book also makes little to no mention of the criticism that Bytedance has received about the ways in which it monitors and censors content in the app, or when it fails to do so for that matter. The app has frequently come under fire for men with dubious intentions using TikTok to contact young children imitating their favourite, scantily clad pop stars. There are also stories of intentional or unintentional censorship of content related to human rights violations in Xinjiang and Hong Kong. These too are important aspects of the 'story of TikTok' that the title of the book promises. Brennan realizes this all too well and mentions several other topics in the epilogue that he would have liked to cover, but which did not make it into the final book. Besides, Bytedance has a reputation for cracking down on critics with an army of lawyers. Maybe Brennan didn’t want to take that risk.

If you have to make a choice between the printed version or the e-book from Attention Factory, then I recommend that you go for the e-book (if you like reading e-books that is). Not only are the images in the e-book in “full color”, while the printed version comes entirely in shades of gray, it also gives you the opportunity to zoom in on the often very interesting images and diagrams created by Valentina Segovia. Many of these images are laid out in landscape, as if they were intended for a PowerPoint presentation. Unfortunately, this means that in a book with portrait layout they had to be scaled down considerably, which sometimes makes them hard to read. The style of Segovia’s handwriting in her illustrations subsequently does not help.

The book is 283 pages thick, but 40 of them are taken up with endnotes and references to the sources Brennan used in his research. Partly due to font size and line spacing, this is a bit of a waste of paper in the printed version. It is a pity that in the e-book the references to internet pages do not contain hyperlinks, which would have made it much easier to click-through to those sources.

Despite these minor shortcomings, Brennan does a great job at his primary objective of addressing the lack of knowledge regarding Bytedance. In addition, he shows the enormous speed with which these kinds of events take place in China's dynamic internet sector. It has been a joy to read the book.

One person found this helpful

Sreo Nexus

A must read for entrepreneurs and marketers

Reviewed in India 🇮🇳 on February 15, 2022

Verified Purchase

The Attention Factory - The story of TikTok
- Book Review

The author does great research into Yiming's childhood and college days and explores Yiming's clearheaded decision making prowess.
Tiktok' success cannot be attributed to just sheer luck as he analyzes the clever decision making behind every major feature.
Every startup that Yiming worked for, he picked up essential building blocks for his grand castle-Tiktok.

It could be his real estate startup where he learnt to release 5-6 apps and then based on response, back all his resources on just 1 app.

At his 'Headlines' app, he understood the pivotal need to understand user profiling and started developing TikTok's greatest strength - Accurate Recommendation Engine, using which he could double or triple the time users spent on his app, because of the content exactly tailored to their tastes was seamlessly and endlessly served.
He started developing this recommendation engine, when even YouTube hadn't started working on it.

Another angle that the Author brilliantly covers is the insane app competition in China. Billions of dollars are pumped in by industry leaders like Wechat to replicate TikTok's app and even more dollars to market these apps. But the ecosystem that Yiming built and the incentives he built to attract content creator prevents his competition from cracking his kingdom.

Then Yiming's ambition takes him to conquer the most conservative overseas market - JAPAN. The initial tweaks his team make to attract content creators is very creative and successful.

When Yiming enters US, they are surprised by the poor level of competition and their technical prowess. Tiktok's recommendation engine is far superior and once they acquire Musical.ly in US which was a niche app for preteens, they tweak it to cater to content creators from all sectors of life.

After few hiccups, their growth and addiction is unstoppable. The story ends in 2020, where the US govt is threatening Tiktok to split and be acquired by a US owner.

Overall, great read over three days. Interesting exposure to how the Chinese ecosystem works and the sheer competition they have to crack to become a success, that the world market seems easy for them.

- Raghavender Velpula

2 people found this helpful

Anindya Roy

Data Science and Growth Hacking

Reviewed in India 🇮🇳 on July 14, 2022

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The book is excellent to understand why and how Tiktok pivoted to become Tiktok as we know today. The readers can know how Tiktok used data science to add new features and improve the product and the different growth hacking techniques adopted by it for exponential growth.

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