Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations

#31

Post by riffic » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 6:31 PM UTC

nickthegreek wrote: post #18

riffic wrote: post #3

Microsoft's ownership is a kiss of death. See: WebTV, Skype, Yammer, Hotmail, Groove, Danger, et cetera. The kids will always move on to something else.

Disagree, this would give MS a strong foothold in social media that the next generation is flocking too.

If you haven't noticed, the pendulum is swinging towards decentralized, distributed computing systems.

This has happened previously in history (mainframe -> PC, back to Cloud Computing, and now to edge/IoT).

If you want to "skate where the puck is going" you would be paying attention to the open web standards space.

Re: Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations

#32

Post by twoodfin » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 6:31 PM UTC

mrweasel wrote: post #22

But why? It doesn't fit into anything. Sure Microsoft has previously bought weird things, but lately they've been pretty focused. Why would they buy TikTok+

There’s probably something to owning regular attention & data on a majority share of US smartphones, regardless of the specific platform or app.

TikTok presumably hits a broad audience that Office / Outlook / Teams do not.

Re: Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations

#33

Post by SpicyLemonZest » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 6:32 PM UTC

mullingitover wrote: post #27

I never really understood the panic over TikTok. Is the fear about security, or is the fear that China might actually have successful social media product in the US?

The fear is that any large Chinese project holding the personal data of Americans is inherently a security concern. It wouldn't be a big issue if Tiktok were French or Korean or something.

Re: Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations

#34

Post by Belphemur » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 6:33 PM UTC

mensetmanusman wrote: post #15

Hopefully it will be rebranded MikMok or ZuneZok. This seems like a dumb move, why would MS want to get tied up in the horrors of social media when they have such a profitable empire. They couldn’t possibly tie in MicMok to Office 365 and have anything good come from it.

I agree it doesn't make any sense ...

They just sold their Mixer platform to Facebook.

If they can't manage correctly a game streaming platform, I don't see them be able to take on a video social network one.

Re: Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations

#35

Post by cellis » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 6:33 PM UTC

TikTok acquired an app called Musically, which was a US app.

Edit: acquired

Re: Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations

#36

Post by mrtksn » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 6:34 PM UTC

What happens when Google is left out of having a social media business when most of the things are happening in the social media these days? They tried few times and looks like gave up.

Re: Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations

#37

Post by Firebrand » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 6:34 PM UTC

mrweasel wrote: post #22

But why? It doesn't fit into anything. Sure Microsoft has previously bought weird things, but lately they've been pretty focused. Why would they buy TikTok+

The same reason why they bought Minecraft and tried Mixer: to acquire the next generation of technology consumers.

Re: Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations

#38

Post by tomjakubowski » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 6:34 PM UTC

riffic wrote: post #21

hilbertseries wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GitHub?

Yep, not even GitHub is immune from the Microsoft kiss of death: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GitHub#ICE_Contract

ICE was a GitHub customer beginning in 2016, before the Microsoft acquisition. https://github.blog/2019-10-09-github-and-us-government-deve...

Re: Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations

#39

Post by TrainedMonkey » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 6:34 PM UTC

mensetmanusman wrote: post #15

Hopefully it will be rebranded MikMok or ZuneZok. This seems like a dumb move, why would MS want to get tied up in the horrors of social media when they have such a profitable empire. They couldn’t possibly tie in MicMok to Office 365 and have anything good come from it.

Because they have cash to burn and having a major social media platform is trendy. /s

Re: Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations

#40

Post by da_chicken » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 6:34 PM UTC

mensetmanusman wrote: post #15

Hopefully it will be rebranded MikMok or ZuneZok. This seems like a dumb move, why would MS want to get tied up in the horrors of social media when they have such a profitable empire. They couldn’t possibly tie in MicMok to Office 365 and have anything good come from it.

> This seems like a dumb move, why would MS want to get tied up in the horrors of social media when they have such a profitable empire.

Because it's a business operating after Wall Street decided that perpetual growth was not only a realistic expectation for stocks, but a mandatory one as well.