Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more

Inside TikTok: Culture, strategy, monetization, and more | Ray Cao

Рет қаралды 13,189

Күн бұрын

Ray (Jiayi) Cao is the global head of product strategy and operations for monetization product at TikTok. Prior to TikTok, Ray spent six years at Google helping scale Google Shopping globally. In our conversation, we discuss:
• TikTok’s internal culture and core values
• How TikTok’s product team operates
• How working at TikTok is different from working at Google
• How TikTok rolls out to new markets
• TikTok’s core principle of “context, not control”
• How their sales and product teams work together
• Lessons (and mistakes) from building TikTok’s early go-to-market team
• The importance of hiring for quality rather than quantity
• Insights on being successful on TikTok as a creator, a business, and an advertiser
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Find the full transcript at: www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/in...
Where to find Ray Cao:
• LinkedIn: / jiayiraycao
Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: www.lennysnewsletter.com
• X: / lennysan
• LinkedIn: / lennyrachitsky
In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Ray’s background
(04:55) Cultural differences between Google and TikTok
(08:24) Fine-tuning the algorithm for different markets
(12:15) Examples of fine-tuning the algorithm
(15:11) Core principles and values of TikTok
(19:34) Hiring at TikTok
(21:38) Embracing the “always day one” mentality
(25:09) Collaboration between teams
(28:38) Amazon’s cultural influence
(31:14) Setting up the product organization for speed and innovation
(35:38) Building the go-to-market team
(40:18) What makes people successful at TikTok
(43:02) Thoughts on putting in long hours
(44:40) OKRs and planning at TikTok
(49:12) Tips for how to be successful on TikTok
(53:49) Tips for advertising on TikTok
(01:04:03) Getting started with TikTok Ads
(01:08:42) Common mistakes to avoid with TikTok advertising
(01:09:44) Ray’s favorite TikTok account
(01:10:54) Where to find Ray
Referenced:
• TikTok: tiktok.com/
• Google Shopping: shopping.google.com/
• Eugene Wei’s blog: www.eugenewei.com/
• TikTok and the Sorting Hat: www.eugenewei.com/blog/2020/8...
• How Netflix builds a culture of excellence | Elizabeth Stone (CTO): www.lennyspodcast.com/how-net...
• Inside OpenAI | Logan Kilpatrick (head of developer relations): www.lennyspodcast.com/inside-...
• Brian Chesky’s new playbook: www.lennyspodcast.com/brian-c...
• Lead with Context not Control: www.svpg.com/lead-with-contex...
• Shuba on TikTok: / tiktokbrownchick
• Duolingo on TikTok: / duolingo
• Duolingo leagues: duolingo.fandom.com/wiki/League
• CapCut: www.capcut.com/
• Amanda Talijan (silent baby item reviews) on TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@amanda_talija...
Production and marketing by penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.
Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.

Пікірлер: 11

@lvernon9471 4 ай бұрын

I loved him discussing how TikTok is more for top of funnel and brand awareness. That’s been my belief about the system. Get eyes on your product/company with TikTok and make different content for the other platforms.

@Blockbreakerdeluxe 8 күн бұрын

I currently work at TikTok and I am in fact using a burner account to avoid repercussions. I want to start by saying that TikTok doesn't want true diversity. I would encourage anyone to ask TikTok about the ethnicity of the workforce and the striking lack of diversity will be apparent. The company doesn't operate like a startup and in fact like many other Chinese businesses they have a very rigid hierarchy which is difficult to break even if the hierarchy slowed down the progress. The managers are super biased and high visibility work is only given to Chinese employees while the rest of the staff does the support work. Instances of meetings switching to using Chinese language are very frequent. This is true for meetings about US business with non-chinese leaders present. They simply don't care. I will not go into WLB issues as almost everyone is aware of them, but if you are not Chinese don't go anywhere near this hot pile of stinkiest sh*t.