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

#171

Post by moreorless » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 8:19 PM UTC

ericmay wrote: post #164

moreorless wrote: post #145

Not a single person seem to think that it is odd that we can simply order a foreign company to sell their business to an American company.

Well, probably because that's not what is happening. The US has the right to ban companies from the country (as do other countries). What the US is saying is that the parent company (Bytedance) bust divest Tik Tok or they'll lose access to the US market. Microsoft is interested in it, but it could be a different company buying it. This is different than "you must sell this company to this other company" because the U…

According to this Time's article, President Trump is ordering them to sell it.

https://time.com/5874408/trump-order-bytedance-sell-tiktok-u...

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

#172

Post by kumarvvr » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 8:19 PM UTC

sanxiyn wrote: post #163

kumarvvr wrote: post #131

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.

It is a chance to acquire the next YouTube. An incredible chance, if you ask me.

TikTok has the feel of something like Vine or Snapchat.

Sure, teens and kids are using it, but it feels like people will grow out of it.

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

#173

Post by xxpor » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 8:21 PM UTC

AndrewBissell wrote: post #103

m0xte wrote: post #50

TikTok is politically poisonous. Why would they?!?

Watch as the political "poison" of TikTok's rampant user surveillance is magically transmuted away once it is acquired by an American tech company!

But that's the exact issue, it's political poison because of who owns it. Why would it be "magically transmuted away"? That's literally the entire point.

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

#174

Post by crazygringo » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 8:23 PM UTC

kumarvvr wrote: post #172

sanxiyn wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a chance to acquire the next YouTube. An incredible chance, if you ask me.

TikTok has the feel of something like Vine or Snapchat. Sure, teens and kids are using it, but it feels like people will grow out of it.

I mean, people grew out of Friendster and MySpace too, until Facebook turned out to be the one they didn't grow out of.

Nobody knows, but it's worth a gamble.

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

#175

Post by m0zg » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 8:23 PM UTC

muststopmyths wrote: post #114

Wait, so I'm going to have to install the TikTok For Business with Sharepoint integration in my Teams? I guess anything makes sense to a company that paid $26 billion USD for LinkedIn.

That'll be "TikTok for Business 365 Professional Edition" for you, sir.

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

#176

Post by soniman » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 8:25 PM UTC

Microsoft might want to get rid of the advertizing businesses (like Bing) and merging Bing with Tiktok would create a mini Google-Youtube spinoff that would be very hot.

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

#177

Post by kumarvvr » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 8:27 PM UTC

crazygringo wrote: post #174

kumarvvr wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TikTok has the feel of something like Vine or Snapchat. Sure, teens and kids are using it, but it feels like people will grow out of it.

I mean, people grew out of Friendster and MySpace too, until Facebook turned out to be the one they didn't grow out of. Nobody knows, but it's worth a gamble.

Facebook is getting grown out of. The younger ones hardly see FB as the hip thing.

And, FB has morphed into more than just a way to meet friends. It has become the town square for the village idiot to shout at the top of his lungs as to how UFOs are implanting DNA into the cattle.

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

#178

Post by nsl73 » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 8:28 PM UTC

slipheen wrote: post #64

I 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…

> It would help address the spyware concern by moving it to a US company

Does anyone else remember when housing data in US severs was considered less private than alternatives? It’s incredible that Azure, and the rest of the us based cloud providers, have been able to rebrand American severs as the cloud so successfully that they are well known for being secure and safe.

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

#179

Post by sanxiyn » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 8:28 PM UTC

kumarvvr wrote: post #172

sanxiyn wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a chance to acquire the next YouTube. An incredible chance, if you ask me.

TikTok has the feel of something like Vine or Snapchat. Sure, teens and kids are using it, but it feels like people will grow out of it.

I used both Snapchat and TikTok extensively, and TikTok is like the farthest thing from Snapchat. It can't be more different.

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

#180

Post by talloaktrees » Fri, Jul 31, 2020, 8:30 PM UTC

nsl73 wrote: post #178

slipheen wrote: post #64

I 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…

> It would help address the spyware concern by moving it to a US company Does anyone else remember when housing data in US severs was considered less private than alternatives? It’s incredible that Azure, and the rest of the us based cloud providers, have been able to rebrand American severs as the cloud so successfully that they are well known for being secure and safe.

I don't think anyone with knowledge has ever seriously conisdered servers in China more private than US servers. Unless your goal was to keep information private only from the US government.