What value does Microsoft get out of this?
Looks like a desperate deal pushed by TikTok to get rid of "Chinese spyware" tag.
The deal makes no absolute sense.
Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations
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Re: Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations
#132But 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+
Companies can sometimes act as VC firms and make acquisitions purely as an investment, a growth engine they can use for their core businesses.
Re: Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations
#133What value does Microsoft get out of this? Looks like a desperate deal pushed by TikTok to get rid of "Chinese spyware" tag. The deal makes no absolute sense.
TikTok is massive. The deal would come with a _lot_ of data.
Re: Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations
#134In short, only American companies can have access to the brains of Americans. There is no law to prohibit an app of being used in US, and there is no evidence TikTok broke any existing law operating within US. All the talking point being so far is because it's a chinese company. This is literally how black people was treated. It's interesting to see how protectionism change the country brand of equal business opportu…
The analogy would only make sense if black people were a foreign economic and nuclear powerhouse that have been blocking US apps with even more prejudice. Tit for tat restrictions are standard practice with international trade and not evidence of racism.
fwiw china didn't block US apps, it's china blocks apps decide not to follow the chinese law, regardless if it's US app or from any other country.
If tiktok has child porn or some other illegal stuff, i'm totally fine with blocking it. But in this case, the only evidence so far is, it's a chinese app, not because it's breaking any law.
Re: Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations
#135This is like writing the CCP is massive check! If anything it should be banned from all app stores.
Re: Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations
#136I think it's a clever play. It would help address the spyware concern by moving it to a US company, and give them a better foothold in Social Networking than Linked-in provides. I'd have a few concerns about if MS can keep it growing- For one, I worry that Microsoft may mismanage it, similar to how they treated Skype. We saw Yahoo buy many reasonable smaller social networks (Flickr, Delicious, Tumblr) and was never a…
Well, Skype the brand was botched, but Skype is basically what powers Microsoft Teams now. Which is widely successful due to it being bundled with Microsoft 365 (also Teams is pretty decent compared to the comp).
Not sure on the underlying technology, but I would bet that the Skype brand definitely helped Lync adoption (Skype for Business), and the pervasiveness of Skype for Business was key to Teams success.
Re: Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations
#137What value does Microsoft get out of this? Looks like a desperate deal pushed by TikTok to get rid of "Chinese spyware" tag. The deal makes no absolute sense.
A massive video library for computer vision and a huge data set on user actions taken for each video.
More bullish take... potentially the next YouTube.
Re: Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, Skype the brand was botched, but Skype is basically what powers Microsoft Teams now. Which is widely successful due to it being bundled with Microsoft 365 (also Teams is pretty decent compared to the comp).
I believe Teams was a separate technology to begin with - not just rebranded Skype
Though they are separate products with different UIs and features, Teams, Skype consumer version, and (maybe?) Microsoft-hosted Skype for Business all run on the same communications tech stack, made by Microsoft's Intelligent Conversation and Communications Cloud division.*
Interestingly, it looks like Teams was at one point code-named "Skype Spaces" - a name which occasionally appears in Teams deep link URLs.
* see this job ad here: https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/job/834482/Site-Reliabil...
Re: Microsoft is reportedly in talks to buy TikTok's US operations
#139I 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?
Speaking personally, here's why TikTok concerns me: TikTok is a Chinese business, and China has shown no limit to how much it will meddle in the affairs of and even take control of Chinese businesses for the furthering of the Chinese state's agenda. Simultaneously, TikTok has captured the daily attention spans of millions of Americans, many of them especially young and impressionable. They've captured their attention…
> They've captured their attention in the form of a black box algorithm that promotes content in whichever way TikTok deems most appropriate.
Ugh no. TikTok's recommendation algorithm works the way it does because of its userbase's preference. TikTok is NOT free to change it willy-nilly. At best TikTok can "steer" the algorithm.