Ever wondered if the live tiktok profile followers you see on some "counter" websites are actually accurate and showing the followers data in real time?
Well, let's discuss this topic, as most people might be drawn into the feel of the live updates but the sites might be tricking the public by not showing real data at all. For example, let's look at the only reliable source showing the followers for a specific profile, that is, TikTok itself:
As you can see, any followers shown for a profile are rounded numbers and TikTok (as of current time) does not provide a public API that contains the exact followers a profile has. So how do certain TikTok counter sites show "supposed" exact followers?
Some digging into online forums have brought up this question as well, and a Reddit user claims that after analyzing the traffic, he saw that they are guessing the followers count based on growth data. Which then would suggest that the data is being predicted rather than actually showing the real figures.
One way to achieve this illusion of real alterations on followers and live updates feel can be the use of an odometer.
As described by Github Hubspot Odometer: 'Odometer is a Javascript and CSS library for smoothly transitioning numbers. It is free and open source and was developed by HubSpot developers'. The implementation is quite simple for experienced programmers, and just requires the use of Javascript (programming language) files to implement this feature. Updating the values are pretty straightforward as well. Within the link there are cool odometer animations to check out for.
So one might ask how the followers are updated for the sites implementing the odometer, it could be that the real rounded figures from the official TikTok site are taken and then recorded within a certain time-frame of each day. Then, based on the recorded previous growth of the real followers, a prediction algorithm (some mathematical calculations) could be added on top to make some numbers appear within the frame of the real followers, that may not go overboard compared to the last recording and would follow the trend based on the growth data recorded.
For example, within the red mark of the above image, the real followers could have been obtained by TikTok, 5.5K (5,500). But after that, every new update on the followers are determined by the overall trend and how the chart might result for that specific time of the day. The live followers might indicate 5,609 but this can be completely made up by predictions made on the previous recorded data.
Ultimately, it really questions the reliability and genuineness of the tiktok counter sites implementing the 'odometer' as discussed. Are these websites really transparent on whether they are showing data that is most likely predicted and based on previous growth or are they claiming to show the real accurate followers for TikTok profiles?
The doubt persists, and the support for these sites actually providing the accurate followers when there seems to be no official source of this to be extracted from is a problem to be addressed. As the viewers of these sites, could actually be wrongfully drawn into the perception of live updates.
At TikTokLiveCount, all the followers data is drawn only from the official TikTok source that explicitly indicates the rounded numbers. Our site only shows the data from the official source not altered in any way. When it comes to the income calculator tool, we also clarify that the calculation is an estimate and not the real figures the influencers or any TikTok profile might be earning. We use a formula to calculate their estimated post earnings based on the data of the profile (followers f.e.) commented on the about page.
Our platform ensures accurate tracking only from the official source, and any comments will be explicitly told to be absolutely transparent and reliable.
Learn more about how we provide real-time statistics on TikTokLiveCount.