> That's the opposite of what Facebook notoriously found
Consider that Facebook's conclusions are why they don't have anything remotely as successful as TikTok, for engagement.
> in the best interest of the users?
I don't understand this. Is this some moral motive? TikTok is an independent for profit company that has a product with better engagement than any other in the world. Within that context, yes, it's in the best interest for the user, measured by engagement.
You cannot answer the question of whether maximizing engagement with TikTok is in the best interest of the user by pointing out that maximizing engagement maximizes engagement.
I was answering in the context of video watching, where “interest” is literally how interested the videos are to the person, which could be measured as a global max of long term engagement.
As I said, I don’t understand the question. To understand I would be to know what “best interest” means to you, and in what specific context?
3b monthly users would mean nearly half of the entire world's population is on Facebook at least once per month. No matter how you shake it, that's simply not a realistic number, even before you consider people that live in areas with no internet, or regimes that disallow sites like Facebook, children too young to even possibly use Facebook, so on.
It wouldn't surprise me if the total number of real users, not counting bots and alt accounts, is probably ~1b or less.
