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Bytedance said to be valued at over $75B in new round

bloomberg.com

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Re: Bytedance said to be valued at over $75B in new round

#61

Post by sorenjan »

fspeech wrote: post #52
sorenjan wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never used Musica.ly myself, and I don't have any kids of my own, but I came across this video [0] where a Youtuber looked at clips from it. It seems like a lawsuit waiting to happen, I can't see how it could be worth that much money. I wouldn't want any of my future kids anywhere near there. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PmphkNDosg (NSFW language)

GP was wrong. They acquired musica.ly in 2017 for $800 million. Musica.ly accounts for a minuscule portion of their valuation. The article itself clearly spells out what Bytedance's main businesses are, but commenters don't appear to want to read!

I can't see how it's worth close to $800 million either. Besides the icky sexualized content, isn't ads to kids illegal in most countries? How are you going to monetize that market? And even if it's legal, how moral is it?

Re: Bytedance said to be valued at over $75B in new round

#62

Post by stephenr »

earenndil wrote: post #54
stephenr wrote: post #21

The way things go these days, you need to consider the context of this headline (and the whole article really). Worlds most valuable dog shit on a stick isn't something anyone cares about, regardless of how much someone says its worth. Similarly that dog shit on a stick doesn't make it's owner any money. So. What exactly is the difference?

> $75B > doesn't make it's[sic] owner any money

What point are you trying to make?

Re: Bytedance said to be valued at over $75B in new round

#63

Post by isoskeles »

jasode wrote: post #24
FLUX-YOU wrote: post #9

>35-Year-Old Unknown First of all, that's rude. Second, if they have a $75b valuation and no profit plan, that's not likely a good sign. I doubt China's P2P and venture capital markets are related, but I'd bet they gave a high valuation just to grab headlines. Also, it'll eventually get censored like everything else in China, so 'doing better than Baidu' is probably temporary.

>First of all, that's rude. Real question: Is there some social etiquette rule that says describing a person to a news audience as "unknown" is being rude? Honestly, I've never heard of that. If I created a billion dollar company and Bloomberg called me "an unknown" , I'd consider it a massive compliment. It means that I was able to grow the company totally under the radar without any distracting interview requests f…

Every other founder is virtually unknown before they become known. Is he unknown because he lives in China and didn't attend Stanford? What does it mean that he is Unknown?

Re: Bytedance said to be valued at over $75B in new round

#64

Post by fspeech »

insalada wrote: post #16

Here's me, wandering around the internet for multiple decades now. Tuning into Slashdot for maybe 10 years, HN for about 5 years, I'm tuned into pretty much all of the new school recent developments and current events, across a wide range of technologies, and I've never heard of this particular company, neither heard nor used of any of its products, nor heard mention of any of them, until right now, today, and it's t…

Their businesses have been regularly reported upon in the English media. Try searching "toutiao" or "douyin".

Re: Bytedance said to be valued at over $75B in new round

#65

Post by paradite »

insalada wrote: post #16

Here's me, wandering around the internet for multiple decades now. Tuning into Slashdot for maybe 10 years, HN for about 5 years, I'm tuned into pretty much all of the new school recent developments and current events, across a wide range of technologies, and I've never heard of this particular company, neither heard nor used of any of its products, nor heard mention of any of them, until right now, today, and it's t…

Sorry to sound harsh. Maybe it's time to burst out of the English/US bubble and look at what's happening around other parts of the world.

Come to think of it, maybe I should start a blog focused on covering tech in China.

Edit: To give some context, out of 10 videos that I see on facebook, about 3 of them are "directly taken" from douyin. You can spot them because they have the watermark in Chinese. Granted my social circle is more "Chinese", but lots of content are not Chinese specific, like cats or random funny videos.

Re: Bytedance said to be valued at over $75B in new round

#66

Post by [deleted] »

jasode wrote: post #24
FLUX-YOU wrote: post #9

>35-Year-Old Unknown First of all, that's rude. Second, if they have a $75b valuation and no profit plan, that's not likely a good sign. I doubt China's P2P and venture capital markets are related, but I'd bet they gave a high valuation just to grab headlines. Also, it'll eventually get censored like everything else in China, so 'doing better than Baidu' is probably temporary.

>First of all, that's rude. Real question: Is there some social etiquette rule that says describing a person to a news audience as "unknown" is being rude? Honestly, I've never heard of that. If I created a billion dollar company and Bloomberg called me "an unknown" , I'd consider it a massive compliment. It means that I was able to grow the company totally under the radar without any distracting interview requests f…

[deleted]

Re: Bytedance said to be valued at over $75B in new round

#67

Post by [deleted] »

tobltobs wrote: post #57
FLUX-YOU wrote: post #9

>35-Year-Old Unknown First of all, that's rude. Second, if they have a $75b valuation and no profit plan, that's not likely a good sign. I doubt China's P2P and venture capital markets are related, but I'd bet they gave a high valuation just to grab headlines. Also, it'll eventually get censored like everything else in China, so 'doing better than Baidu' is probably temporary.

A bit off topic, but isn't you nickname FLUX-YOU a bit rude? Apart from that you are screaming does it sound quite similar to f%&$ you. And to flux means something like "flowing of fluid from the body, such as diarrhea".

[deleted]

Re: Bytedance said to be valued at over $75B in new round

#68

Post by thomaslangston »

desireco42 wrote: post #59
FLUX-YOU wrote: post #9

>35-Year-Old Unknown First of all, that's rude. Second, if they have a $75b valuation and no profit plan, that's not likely a good sign. I doubt China's P2P and venture capital markets are related, but I'd bet they gave a high valuation just to grab headlines. Also, it'll eventually get censored like everything else in China, so 'doing better than Baidu' is probably temporary.

Absolutely agree. When Kevin Rose came out of the blue with Digg, they didn't call him 'Unknown'. It is just how media in the US (and rest of the world is trying to copy them mostly) tries to grab attention. Also, it is unknown to them, but Bytedance has been around for quite some time and covered in the US. Also, it is not like they are not making money. So many things are wrong with how they cover this.

Kevin Rose was a TV host at the time Digg launched. He might not have been well known, but he wasn't unknown.

Re: Bytedance said to be valued at over $75B in new round

#69

Post by fspeech »

sorenjan wrote: post #61
fspeech wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GP was wrong. They acquired musica.ly in 2017 for $800 million. Musica.ly accounts for a minuscule portion of their valuation. The article itself clearly spells out what Bytedance's main businesses are, but commenters don't appear to want to read!

I can't see how it's worth close to $800 million either. Besides the icky sexualized content, isn't ads to kids illegal in most countries? How are you going to monetize that market? And even if it's legal, how moral is it?

All I could say is that if there were a clear way for monetizing their user base musical.ly would not have been sold for that price. But it is not very relevant to Bytedance's valuation or main businesses either way.

Re: Bytedance said to be valued at over $75B in new round

#70

Post by coldtea »

FLUX-YOU wrote: post #9

>35-Year-Old Unknown First of all, that's rude. Second, if they have a $75b valuation and no profit plan, that's not likely a good sign. I doubt China's P2P and venture capital markets are related, but I'd bet they gave a high valuation just to grab headlines. Also, it'll eventually get censored like everything else in China, so 'doing better than Baidu' is probably temporary.

>Second, if they have a $75b valuation and no profit plan, that's not likely a good sign.

For whom? Because the founder will walk out a billionaire, or at least multi-millionaire, whatever happens...

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