• Attention Factory

  • The Story of TikTok and China's ByteDance
  • By: Matthew Brennan
  • Narrated by: Maxwell Zener
  • Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (42 ratings)

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Attention Factory  By  cover art

Attention Factory

By: Matthew Brennan
Narrated by: Maxwell Zener
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Publisher's summary

“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, ByteDance’s original team, incisive analysis, and telling infographics, Attention Factory is an essential listen 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.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2020 Matthew Brennan (P)2021 Matthew Brennan

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Excellent Tech Lesson.

Lots to learn here. Highly recommended book on the history of short form video apps.

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Good peek into China's internet startup ecosystem

Loved it. Fascinating story about ByteDance and its founder Yimming. Helps you understand the social networking apps.

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one of the most insightful books i've read

amazing read/listen. engaging. great amount of research and context given. accompanying PDF is great at explaining key concepts and idea. i have already recommended it to several people

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Interesting but no very actionable.

Talks about some very interesting growth hack tactics used by Chinese tech companies, but they are not very actionable outside china. Other than that an interesting listen about inside stories in Chinese startup scene.

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