While tech companies are consumed with finding ways to compete with TikTok, almost no one in conventional media “spends any time talking about it,” said Recode senior correspondent Peter Kafka in an SBJ Spotlight interview with our John Ourand. “To me, that’s just an obvious disconnect.” Kafka authored a recent column headlined, “ It’s TikTok’s world. Can TV live in it?”
He said the main response to TikTok’s growth from traditional media execs has been to "punt and hope it’s someone else’s problem a quarter from now or two years from now." But Kafka said this ignores the trend of conventional broadcast audiences growing older while a billion younger consumers spend most of their media time watching short video after short video. “If you’re in the business of getting anyone under the age of 30 to look at what you’re putting on a screen, you have to think about the fact that you’re probably asking them to put down TikTok and watch your thing instead,” said Kafka. “That’s a very difficult ask. … (TikTok) is insanely addictive.”
