Since its inception, ByteDance has been fraught with controversy and skepticism.

If these controversies and skepticism are summarized and defined, the debate over intelligent algorithms and the subsequent issues they cause is undoubtedly a major aspect.

Even in today's context, where intelligent algorithms and recommendations are widely used, doubts about ByteDance and its founder Zhang Yiming have not diminished.

As Zhang Yiming has yet to firmly secure his position as China's richest man, former richest man Zhong Shanshan has begun to call out Zhang Yiming.

Zhong Shanshan stated that Douyin and Toutiao are first and foremost businesses, profit-driven enterprises, and platform enterprises with sufficient power to control public opinion. Given this background, please adhere to the civilized norms and rules of a business. As civilized rules or norms, one should not only abide by and restrain oneself but also use these norms to constrain various individuals in society, providing undifferentiated fairness and justice to people of all differences.

He said, "I hope that Mr. Zhang Yiming, Douyin, Toutiao, and all media and self-media that have spread rumors about me will sincerely apologize! I am waiting."

If Zhong Shanshan's doubts about Zhang Yiming and ByteDance under his leadership are summarized and defined, the acquisition and amplification of "traffic" and the resulting harm to the parties involved are undoubtedly a major aspect.

In fact, as early as August this year, Zhong Shanshan expressed in CCTV's "Dialogue" program that if the information carried by the word "traffic" has no responsible person and traffic does not bear legal responsibility under the public opinion environment, allowing some people with private purposes or for monetary gain to deliberately create traffic potential by exploiting human weaknesses through technological means, then traffic is undoubtedly evil. Water armies are one aspect, but more importantly, the algorithm that controls them is even more sinister.

As the former richest man, Zhong Shanshan, and the new richest man, Zhang Yiming, begin to meet on the issue of traffic and algorithms.

For Zhang Yiming, Zhong Shanshan's call-out and his doubts about traffic and algorithms undoubtedly expose ByteDance's hypocrisy.

I

We all know that almost every evolution in the internet industry is a process of traffic migration.

In such a process, whoever masters the most efficient means of acquiring traffic and can obtain as much traffic as possible will win in the jungle of the internet industry.

For ByteDance founded by Zhang Yiming, it stands out precisely under such a mechanism.

The reason why ByteDance can stand out in the mobile internet era is not only because it has grasped the general trend of the development of the mobile internet era and truly brought content into the mobile internet era but also because it has established a content recommendation mechanism based on its big data-driven intelligent algorithm system, truly allowing traffic to quickly gather under ByteDance's large system.

Whether it's Toutiao, which focuses on images and texts, or Douyin, which focuses on videos and live streaming, they were born and emerged against this backdrop.

It can be said that, thanks to the combined effects of the mobile internet trend and intelligent algorithms, Zhang Yiming and ByteDance under his leadership were able to stand out from the dark forest of the mobile internet, survive the squeeze between BAT, and become a pole in the internet industry.

In a sense, the rise of Zhang Yiming and ByteDance is a process of traffic migration.

To date, Zhang Yiming and ByteDance under his leadership have become new traffic giants, not only leaving Meituan and Didi behind but also surpassing established internet players like Tencent, Alibaba, and Baidu.

It is no exaggeration to say that the ByteDance ecosystem has now become a standard for people to access information and content in their daily lives.

Whether it's image and text content or short video live streaming content, the ByteDance ecosystem occupies a considerable volume.

One of the most important reasons why extreme remarks about Zhong Shanshan tend to gather on Toutiao and Douyin platforms lies herein.",It is precisely due to the gathering of traffic in the ByteDance ecosystem and the resulting commercial monetization that we have witnessed the continuous surge in Zhang Yiming's wealth.

To date, Zhang Yiming has replaced Zhong Shanshan as China's new richest man.

II

However, as the intelligent algorithms and recommendation mechanisms that built ByteDance's vast content and traffic empire begin to exert increasing magic, especially as the resulting problems start to emerge more frequently, the very intelligent algorithms and recommendation mechanisms that once made ByteDance powerful have also begun to attract increasing criticism.

Both the concept of the information cocoon and the idea of being trapped in the system were born against this backdrop.

Once, intelligent algorithms and recommendations, which enhanced content distribution efficiency and amplified influence, have begun to face increasing doubts and criticism.

If these doubts and criticisms are summarized and defined, merely relying on data, lacking value judgments, blindly amplifying, and blindly recommending are undoubtedly major aspects.

This is one of the significant reasons why Zhong Shanshan called out Zhang Yiming.

For Zhong Shanshan, he has experienced online bullying based on ByteDance's intelligent algorithms and recommendation mechanisms. Whether it's text, images, or videos, they have all caused great harm to Zhong Shanshan.

If we delve into the underlying reasons behind such harm, ByteDance's adherence to intelligent algorithms and recommendations, as well as the amplification of relevant content, is undoubtedly the primary aspect.

At this point, ByteDance's intelligent recommendations and algorithms are no longer accelerators for improving content distribution efficiency and satisfying users' personalized content needs but have become amplifiers that magnify negatives and reinforce negative impacts.

For Zhong Shanshan, Zhang Yiming's distribution of information without any values or stances is harmful.

This undoubtedly reveals the problems existing within Zhang Yiming and ByteDance under his leadership.

Merely focusing on efficiency and traffic without screening or discrimination can only promote ByteDance's strength through leveraging traffic, which is indeed a great harm to parties like Zhong Shanshan.

From this perspective, when Zhong Shanshan calls out Zhang Yiming, it undoubtedly exposes Zhang Yiming's hypocrisy and reveals the problems and challenges caused by the sole pursuit of traffic and efficiency.

III

If Zhong Shanshan's call-out to Zhang Yiming reveals the negative effects of ByteDance's intelligent algorithms and recommendations, then the issues caused by ByteDance's blind pursuit of traffic and efficiency in commercialization are another important aspect worthy of our attention.

As mentioned earlier, leveraging the traffic aggregation brought by intelligent algorithms and recommendations, ByteDance has become a leading traffic giant in China's internet industry, and Zhang Yiming has become China's richest man.

However, in terms of monetizing traffic, Zhang Yiming and ByteDance under his leadership are still adhering to the strategy of prioritizing traffic and efficiency.

This can be glimpsed from live streaming sales on Douyin.

Douyin e-commerce can be seen as the most crucial aspect of ByteDance's traffic monetization.

It must be said that live streaming sales do meet the diverse shopping needs of users and consumers, allowing them to understand products more clearly and comprehensively. However, merely acting as a matchmaking platform and a marketing channel without truly intervening in the upstream and downstream of the industry, the new e-commerce model represented by live streaming sales undoubtedly contradicts the current development trend of the e-commerce industry.

We all know that current e-commerce platforms are beginning to pay more attention to the integration of platforms and industries, focusing more on the connection and integration of industrial chains.

Whether it's Taobao or JD.com, they are undoubtedly no longer optimizing the traditional platform model but starting to avoid the problems and drawbacks of traditional e-commerce through the integration of digital and physical realms.

However, Douyin e-commerce under ByteDance is still merely a platform and a channel, struggling to establish a complete industrial system.

This is precisely why we witness the proliferation of fake goods on Douyin e-commerce and the collapse of many internet celebrities represented by Little Yang and Northeast Rain Sister.

The issues pointed out by Zhong Shanshan regarding ByteDance's intelligent recommendations and algorithms, which ultimately trap users in an information cocoon and harm parties like him, are fundamental problems in ByteDance's content distribution and traffic acquisition.

The proliferation of fake goods on Douyin e-commerce and the continuous collapse of internet celebrities ultimately lead to problems encountered by users and consumers, reflecting the difficulties and challenges ByteDance is facing in traffic monetization.

As the starting point of the ByteDance ecosystem, content recommendations based on intelligent algorithms are undoubtedly the culprit behind all this.

From this perspective, Zhong Shanshan undoubtedly exposes Zhang Yiming's hypocrisy, allowing people to see through the reality of the ByteDance ecosystem more clearly.

Conclusion

As Zhang Yiming has yet to firmly secure his position as China's richest man, he has already attracted a call-out from former richest man Zhong Shanshan.

If Zhong Shanshan's call-out is summarized and defined, he undoubtedly uncovers the rise of Zhang Yiming and ByteDance under his leadership.

One of the crucial reasons why Zhang Yiming and ByteDance have come this far is that they have become a new traffic overlord through the recommendation mechanism of intelligent algorithms.

However, as Zhong Shanshan said, using technological means to exploit human weaknesses to deliberately create traffic potential is undoubtedly evil.

Zhang Yiming and ByteDance under his leadership are doing just that, which undoubtedly exposes Zhang Yiming's hypocrisy.

As the recommendation mechanism derived from intelligent algorithms begins to attract increasing criticism, especially as phenomena like information cocoons and being trapped in systems emerge more frequently, as the pioneer of intelligent algorithms, Zhang Yiming and ByteDance under his leadership may indeed be at a time for reflection.