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Getting a sense of the scale of social media platforms can be tricky. While tech companies often share self-serving metricslike monthly active users or how likely users are to buy products after engaging with brandsthey rarely offer a true sense of their platforms’ enormity. But a new study published in Cornell Universitys preprint server arXiv aims to change that by quantifying TikToks scale over a single dayclaiming to be among the first to grasp the platforms full scope. It also offers insight into what people are watching, how much content is being uploaded, and who is posting it. The motivation is using this social media data to better understand society, says Jürgen Pfeffer, one of the studys coauthors and chair of computational science at the Technical University of Munich. The researchers reverse-engineered how TikTok assigns video IDs to gather their data, eventually capturing what they believe to be at least 99% of all posts from a single hour on April 10, 2024around five million videos. They also sampled one minute from every hour across a 24-hour span between April 9 and 10. The entire process took five months. Among the teams findings was the sheer scale of TikTok activity. They estimated 117 million videos were uploaded on that single day. Roughly one in five featured children, based on estimates from an age classification engine the team trained. Videos posted precisely at the 0th second of each minute significantly outperformed otherssuggesting timing tricks might influence the algorithm. However, Pfeffer notes this could be due to professional creators scheduling their posts, who are also more likely to achieve success. About a fifth of the videos were deleted within seven months, hinting at large-scale moderation or user regret. The average video was approximately 20.5 seconds long and was viewed between 2,250 and 2,500 timesdepending on whether the data came from the hour-long slice or the one-minute-per-hour sample. Pfeffer was also surprised to find that TikTok engagement peaked twice daily. Around 4 a.m. UTC (11 p.m. EST), uploads surged to nearly six million videos per hour, reaching a similar peak again around 1 p.m. UTC (8 a.m. EST). The researchers attributed these spikes to global usage cycles, as morning users in Asia overlapped with late-night uploaders in the U.S., and vice versa later in the day. The team also grouped popular videos into thematic clusters. Among the most common were images with colorful backgrounds and graphics and selfies with fashionable outfits and watermarks. Less frequent themes included political commentary on police operations in Pakistan (0.025% of all videos) and camouflaged military soldier images, which accounted for 0.06% of the content.
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E-Commerce
Were facing a career confidence crisis. Work is changing fast, yet many employees feel stuck. At LinkedIn, our data shows workforce confidence has dropped to a five-year low, and only 15% of employees say their manager has supported them with career planning in the past six months. Managers can play a big role in righting the shiphelping employees build the new skills they need to stay relevant and develop into future leaders. But this requires a fundamental shift: transforming them from task-overseers to coaches developing talent and sparking the best ideas from their teams. There are some key steps any company can take now to develop a culture of coaching that starts with your managersbut extends well beyond them. Start to develop your managers as coaches If you want your managers to become coaches, that starts by coaching your coaches. Just like elite athletes rely on coaches to reach peak performance, managers also need coaching to unlock their full potential. Coaching is a skill that needs to be intentionally developed. Executives are starting to grasp this opportunity. Nearly 80% of global CHROs agree their managers in the future will spend less time managing tasks and more time coaching teams. Leading companies are doubling down on this already. For instance, IBM supports first and secondline managers to grow through targeted programs, assessments, and skill-aligned badges. Manager Impact, for example, is an interactive learning experience that coaches new managers on how to lead with confidence, create meaningful employee experiences, and navigate real-world leadership challenges. Managers who complete these programs achieve significantly higher employee engagement scores, says IBM. Coca-Cola is taking similar steps to grow managers into coaches by implementing rigorous leadership assessments to select the right people for leadership roles, and then providing cohort-base development to set those people managers up for success as coaches. Theyve seen notable upticks in how employees are rating their managers, as well as a boost in overall employee satisfaction. Taking the time to develop your managers into coaches is key to helping employees get unstuck and supercharging growth across the business. Plus, providing managers with the tools and support they need to excel in their roles improves their own retention and engagement, creating a virtuous cycle that benefits the entire organization. Consider making professional 1:1 coaching an employee benefit Its important to recognize your teams are operating through a moment of historic work change. By 2030, we expect 70% of the skills used in most jobs will change, with AI emerging as a catalyst. To keep pace, your people need more support. Training managers to coach is essential, but they cant do it alone. Thats why more companies are bringing in independent career coaches who offer specialized guidance on complex workplace challenges, like navigating difficult workplace relationships, managing career transitions, or developing crucial interpersonal skills that AI cant replicate. Kearney, a business consulting firm and LinkedIn Top Company for 2025, has taken this approach by offering a six-month individualized coaching program and practice rotations designed to accelerate consultant growth. And at LinkedIn, we recently made the decision to offer every single employee, regardless of their job function or seniority level, an opportunity to work directly with an independent career coach. This investment in personalized development is already showing promising results, with 97% of our employee participants saying they feel more confident in their ability to navigate their careers after coaching. Scale personalized coaching in new ways with the help of AI There is no replacement for one-on-one coaching from a trusted adviser, but that person cant be there for you 24/7, which is where AI tools can round out your strategy. While many leaders are focused on AIs impact on productivity, AI for coaching is emerging as the next frontier, with more companies experimenting and seeing early gains. Were seeing firsthand how more organizations are tapping into our AI-powered coaching features in LinkedIn Learning, with companies like Gates Foundation and Thomson Reuters actively using our new coaching tool to help their managers practice new skills. Companies are already saying this is helping their employees better prepare for that difficult conversation or high stakes presentation. Building a strong culture of coaching will always be rooted in human expertise, but it can be complemented and scaled to new heights with the help of technology. The most valuable skill we can cultivate today isn’t technicalit’s teaching our people how to learn continuously in a rapidly changing world, building resilience that no economic shift or technological disruption can shake. By investing in coaching, you’re not just developing skillsyou’re unleashing the uniquely human potential that will define success in the AI era and beyond.
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E-Commerce
In 2017, Ubers executive team reached a critical turning point. The world saw headlines about leadership changes, valuation drops, and cultural upheavals. Beneath the noise, however, lay a deeper issue. It wasnt rogue culture or aggressive expansion. It was misalignment at the very top. An all-too-familiar scenario had taken root: Executives were operating in silos. They werent facing challenges to key decisions, and they overlooked red flags. The result? A $20 billion valuation adjustment and a leadership overhaul that forced Uber to rethink how alignment works at the highest levels. And thats where the real story begins. Instead of crumbling, Uber recalibrated. The company realigned its leadership, rebuilt trust, and restructured cultural processes. The company turned misalignment into an opportunity for transformation. Today, it stands as a case study in how great organizations use misalignment as a catalyst for growth. These challenges arent unique to Uber. Misalignment is present in companies of all stages and sizes. Unfortunately, many teams dont realize it until its too late. What leads to misalignment Most executive teams think theyre aligned. But the data says otherwise. Only 18% strongly agree their teams consistently demonstrate the behaviors that define true alignmentlike communication, integrity, accountability, and follow-through. This gap between perception and reality is where organizations lose their edge. You cant build alignment out of assumptions or beliefs. It requires discipline. If leaders arent actively testing for alignment, they simply hope it exists. Misalignment doesnt happen loudly. It doesnt announce itself from the center stage. Instead, it creeps in during everyday interactions. A CFO notices a financial red flag but assumes someone else will address it. A CMO defends their budget so fiercely it hinders collaboration. Or a CEO shares a vision for the future, unaware their team is nodding in agreement while quietly disengaging. These moments dont feel like failures. But thats what makes them dangerous. The cost of misalignment Misalignment is more than an internal struggle, its an existential threat. In our work with executives across industries like healthcare, technology, government, and finance, the following patterns typically lead to misalignment: Conflict avoidance: Leaders sidestep difficult conversations, allowing minor issues to grow into major problems. Transactional meetings: Discussions lack depth and critical debate, reducing meetings to routine updates instead of platforms for innovation. Superficial trust: Leaders hesitate to ask for help, fearing it signals weakness, while their teams avoid raising strategic concerns out of distrust or fear. Team disengagement: When trust diminishes, team members stop challenging one another and wait for top-down directives, turning from proactive problem-solvers into task-oriented executors. These issues are not failures of leadership competency. They are symptoms of false alignment, which is the consequence of overlooking the need for deliberate cohesion. Signs your executive team is out of sync Think your team is aligned? Consider the following questions: Does alignment depend entirely on your CEO? If your team waits for top-down answers, it isnt aligned. Are your meetings mostly informational updates? If real collaboration happens only in smaller groups, trust is lacking. Are silos the norm? If asking for help feels risky, your leaders are functioning as individuals, not as a team. Is constructive conflict avoided or punished? If problem-solving debates feel unsafe, innovation is stalling. If any of these scenarios resonate, your team isnt just underperformingits likely holding itself back, forfeiting innovation and strategic agility. What great executive teams do differently You cant build alignment in the boardrooms. Its built-in momentsthe way leaders interact, debate, and trust each other. Aligned teams outperform their peers, not because alignment is easy but because it is deliberate. In our experience, companies need to take a two-step approach to fix misalignment: Step 1: Work on internal issues Elevate trust. Companies need to treat trust as a mission-critical value. Facilitate open discussions where executives can address challenges without fear of retaliation. Establish feedback loops and accountability. Integrate structured feedback mechanisms to foster a culture of continuous improvement. Embed professional development. Prioritize coaching and mentorship to make learning and growth central to your teams strategy. Path 2: Bring in outside experts Executive coaches act as mirrors, revealing blind spots, building trust, and uniting teams before fractures lead to failure. They provide the safe space needed for honest discussions and alignment. A CEOs Final Test: Are You Aligned? Finally, great leaders dont assume alignment, they test it. If you want to know whether your team is truly aligned, ask your executivesprivately and anonymouslyto rate your teams trust, collaboration, engagement, and alignment on a scale from 1 to 10. Compare the results. If the scores vary wildly or skew low, your team isnt aligned, its merely coexisting. Start to think about how you can fix it. Remember, misalignment isnt just an operational challenge, its a threat to your organizations survival.
Category:
E-Commerce
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