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

businessinsider.com

191–200 of 546 posts

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

#191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>For one thing, user gesture data or user action data can be automated with 3D software. Not sure I get what that means. >I understand Mojang, because Minecraft is a platform that engages kids in meaningful ways. But TikTok is an app to waste time and shit post. Kids are definitely engaging in meaningful and interesting ways on TikTok. It would be an incredible overgeneralization to say otherwise. Is there a bunch of…

> Not sure I get what that means. Generation of video clips of human gestures, by automating a 3D modeling software, like Blender, will give you not only the video, but also depth and other data related to the video. If you are looking for sources to train your model to recognize depth / gestures, videos from TikTok are far less useful, than generating your own ones by automating or programming them.

Sorry, I’m talking about the user generated actions on the consumption side. Likes, shares, comments, pauses, loops.

Regardless my point on the data aspect of the acquisition wasn't meant to be the reason for the actual value of TikTok for Microsoft.

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

#192
post #149
post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jokes aside, it probably would be a nice addition to their consumer-oriented portfolio (i.e. xbox, minecraft, etc), if they're planning to stay relevant in the FAANG-taking-over-the-world state of reality these days.

Steve Jobs once said about Microsoft that their only problem is that they have no taste. And it's decisions like this that illustrate what he meant. TikTok is such a clash with everything Microsoft stands for as a company (if there is such a thing). It makes no sense.

That’s absolutely amazingly on the mark.

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

#193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I guess anything makes sense to a company that paid $26 billion USD for LinkedIn. Is there data to support that this was overvalued? Not personally a big fan of LinkedIn, but it seemed like probably a good long-term buy for Microsoft.

I don't know, tbh. But to my understanding, it was not profitable before the acquisition. It does generate ~5 billion dollars in revenue now, but Microsoft won't tell you how much of that is profit. Even if I charitably apportion 1B profit (which I bet Microsoft would trumpet if that was a thing), that's 20+ years to make the 26B back. My bigger problem with LinkedIn is that it's a cesspool of recruiter spam. Lynda.c…

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

#194
post #62

Microsoft is definitely a good candidate here for TikTok. With them missing Mobile-rise and Social media-rise, this acquisition seems to be a desperate attempt to cement their position in a hyper growth consumer product that's both Mobile and Social Media. Question is, Would it impact Microsoft's image? I mean, Tik Tok is known for their addictive design and Privacy controversy, so not sure how it goes well with the…

How does it fit in with the rest of their products and overall strategy is my question.

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

#195

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.

Is it any more odd than China strong-arming the NBA, lest they are barred from operating there? If TikTok wants the American/European market and they’d sell the company in order to so, that’s just the reality of working within the current geopolitical landscape.

Wouldn't the logical equivalency be for China to strong-arm the NBA to sell ownership to a Chinese company if they want the NBA to continue to be watched by Chinese audience?

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

#196
post #119
post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that they botched Skype, but I think some of their more recent acquisitions - namely: Mojang, Xamarin, GitHub - have gone pretty well, IMO

I believe the trend here is they left them alone...

Github seems to have gotten some fire in their ass in the last 1-2 years. Hard to say whether that is because of Microsoft or competition of Gitlab, or both.

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

#197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Yeah, if you look at the network requests Teams makes, many of them include 'skype' in the name. Only thing I went off to guess it is a lot of the same services.

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

#198
post #129

It would take nothing less than a from-scratch rewrite to achieve a high degree of confidence that all backdoors have been eliminated from the TikTok codebase. I hope Microsoft is up for that.

Funny how Americans see this. I would trust Tiktok less the second it became US owned. We think software and businesses from Russia and PRC does bad things. We know US owned does. It is mindbaffling to me how anyone could believe the risks are lower with US owned software. Snowden's leaks was a complete failure for the common American. They have learned nothing at all. Good old red scare still works way better than f…

That the US president is essentially threatening to nationalise TikTok shows just how far the US is willing to go to preserve their absolute dominance in social media.

"National security".

Well of course it is. All American social media allows the American intelligence services to surveil just about every person on this planet.

No other nation has ever had this power.

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

#199

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.

BingBong

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

#200

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?

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…

> Imagine China subtly promoting videos to create outrage and civil unrest in the US, or to feed anti-US propaganda to germinate terrorist groups in the US.

I mean, Youtube[1] and Facebook[2] already do this, and nobody has a problem with it. Do foreign-owned businesses not have first amendment rights?

I should also point out that honest journalistic reporting of the reality in the US is more than sufficient to create outrage and civil unrest in the US.

[1] https://techcrunch.com/2020/01/28/study-of-youtube-comments-...

[2] https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanhatesthis/the-far-r...

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