TikTok creators position the core value of smash or pass content as triggering a Viral Loop. Platform data for 2024 shows that the cumulative views of challenge videos with the hashtag #SmashorPass have exceeded 18.4 billion times (TikTok Creative Center). Creators achieved a video completion rate of up to 68% (28% higher than the platform average) by recording the process of themselves or their friends using AI tools (with an average video duration of 21 seconds), and the median user dwell time was 1 minute and 53 seconds (209% of the platform’s benchmark value of 55 seconds). A single popular video, such as “Best Friend Smash or Pass” (@username case), can reach a peak of 8.7 million likes, with a comment interaction density of 15.3 comments per thousand views (benchmark value 1.8), and a sharing rate exceeding 9.7% (viral coefficient K≈1.3). This high dissemination efficiency directly boosts the daily follower growth rate of the account (with an average of ≥2.2% and a maximum of + 650,000 followers in a single day).
To maximize content Stickiness, creators deeply integrate Interactive Design. 65% of the viral videos adopt the “progress suspense” mode: they first display multiple photos, then use subtitles to guide users to “predict the result”, and only announce the AI score after 5 seconds (the page retention rate increases by 27%). Top creators (with over 500,000 followers) have also developed collaborative gameplay, such as launching “Audience Submission and Rating” activities (with an average of over 1,400 submissions per video), and generating the second “Audience Photo Rating Results” video within 72 hours (with a viewing reuse rate as high as 82%). The algorithmic recommendation mechanism enhances exposure: After the system identifies relevant tags, it assigns a 3.2 times initial traffic weighting (the play volume during the video cold start stage can reach 5.7 times the regular level), and the update frequency of the tag aggregation page can reach 3.8 new videos per minute.
Creators take advantage of this trend to drive commercial returns (Monetization Strategy). The average commission that app developers pay to creators for promotion is $0.35 per installation (CPS model, with top creators’ single video guided installation volume exceeding 50,000 times), or a video exposure fee of $8 to $12 per CPM (based on millions of views). The embedded shopping cart function (with an average conversion rate of 1.8%) leads to the sale of related products, such as “AI-style outfits” with a unit price of 19.99 yuan (return rate 241.99, 30-day repurchase rate 17%). A fitness influencer (@fitcreator) successfully directed traffic to his private domain to convert his personal training courses by comparing the “changes in Smash or Pass scores before and after fitness” (35% before fitness vs. 78% after fitness), with an average transaction value of $299 and a conversion rate increase of 3.4 times.
Negative Controversy leads to reverse flow strategy (controversy Leveraging). Approximately 28% of creators produce “critical content” that exposes algorithmic biases (such as the model’s average score for Asians being 18th percentile lower), and such videos receive unexpected traffic bias from the platform’s algorithm (a comment controversy index greater than 0.7 triggers a weight increase). A typical case is a series of videos planned by creator @diversitynow: “Test Smash or Pass with the same face but different skin tones” exposed skin color discrimination in a certain app (the score for darker skin tones dropped by -34%). The total number of views of this series of videos exceeded 46 million (the normal content is expected to be about 8 million), and it was reprinted and reported by the media more than 120 times (including BBC News). Reverse boost the authority of the account (TikTok Creator Marketplace certification index rose by 42 points).
Safety and Compliance have become key enforcement elements (Compliance Safeguard). After the EU’s DSA regulation came into effect, leading MCN agencies forced their signed creators to use Age Gating (filtering users under 18 years old, with a coverage rate of 87%), and implanted a disclaimer in the first frame of the video (with an average duration of 1.2 seconds, the compliance mark CTR increased and the probability of click-through rate decreased by 9%). To avoid privacy lawsuits, 73% of professional creators use the “Face Blur tool” (with a Mosaic resolution of 95%) to process photos of non-participants (reducing copyright risks by 52%). The 2024 TikTok compliance review report shows that the removal rate of smash or pass type videos due to “involving body shame” is approximately 7.3% (compared to 1.1% for beauty type videos), which has pushed creators to establish their own ethical reviews (such as setting up manual scoring and verification procedures, reducing the probability of content violations by 64%). Seek a fragile balance between high transmission and high risk.