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TikTok’s Chinese owner offers to forego stake to clinch U.S. deal – sources

reuters.com

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Re: TikTok’s Chinese owner offers to forego stake to clinch U.S. deal – sources

#431

Post by katzgrau »

vkou wrote: post #337
katzgrau wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The President shouldn't have authority to ban anything at all let alone an app available through privately operated app stores. If it's a matter of national security, yes, he should. Whether it's ultimately seen as an abuse of power can be decided later in courts or via election.

TikTok is not a national security problem, no more than Whatsapp or Telegram or Skype is a national security problem. The last time I asked folks here to explain to me why they think its a national security problem, I got a list of arguments that were just a little bit less plausible then those for the existence of Santa Claus. Just because Trump says something (while providing no proof) does not make it true.

I said if it's a matter of national security.

> TikTok is not a national security problem, no more than Whatsapp or Telegram or Skype is a national security problem.

Yeah, you don't actually know that. What we don't know is the most consequential for us. China is ambitious and is clearly engaged in a long game against the US.

We should watch our backs, no apologies necessary.

Re: TikTok’s Chinese owner offers to forego stake to clinch U.S. deal – sources

#432

Post by javagram »

m0zg wrote: post #416
javagram wrote: post #408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The wheels of justice turn too slowly for election interference The logical solution would to start spinning the wheels faster, not take authoritarian action. Of course, the FEC right now doesn’t even have a quorum and has only had one for about a month in the last year, due to negligence by the President and Congress. It’s obvious the politicians aren’t that concerned about the “wheels of justice” when it comes to…

So I take it you'd be fine if, e.g. Yandex (the "Russian Google") entered the market then? Good to know. Or is that different somehow, in your mind?

Yes, as the other person said, Yandex is available in the USA right now. I’ve seen Yandex bots crawling the USA-based websites I manage at my job. And that’s totally fine.

We don’t have a great firewall here in the USA. At least not yet.

Re: TikTok’s Chinese owner offers to forego stake to clinch U.S. deal – sources

#433

Post by Latty »

MangoCoffee wrote: post #374

Some people here think TikTok is a fad. I used to think FB is a fad but 16 years later. FB is still here. Not as shiny as it used to be but enough to make billions. I don't know if TikTok is a fad and you don't either. If TikTok last more than 10 years. It already make back its cost and some more. Heck, Snap is still around and it used to be a meme stock on WallStreetBets.

I'm always suspicious of anyone who says "this is a fad" who treats the thing with disdain. If you don't understand what people like about the thing, it seems unlikely you will be able to identify if that desire is going to fade quickly.

Re: TikTok’s Chinese owner offers to forego stake to clinch U.S. deal – sources

#434

Post by jariel »

yangcheng wrote: post #232
jariel wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the EU banned American big tech, they'd be set aback 20 years. Of course where would be a populist revolution. The difference between the EU and US on this matter, is that the EU has almost no substitutes, and they just don't - for whatever reason (there are many) have he will to do them. And of course there's no point - what FB is doing is no different from what a EU-based FB would do.

It's easy to create those apps when there is no external competition. China created every major internet service U.S has. EU can easily do the same. The point is FB pay tax to US, and a EU-based FB will pay tax to EU. EU actually want to copy GFW , see https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2020/6487...

Unfortunately, all of these answers are off the mark.

A) Europe has tons of bright people and tons of technical talent - this is not the ussie.

B) Governments don't create stuff. So the 'EU' is barely a government it's not 'they' who can go and make something, or 'have it made'. Even the US gov. would suck bad at copying FB. Granted, if there were no competition, substitutes would arrive.

C) Europe does not have quite the dynamic leadership exhibited in the Valley. Maybe there would be something pop up, but it probably would be a bad clone, it might not have all the nimble features. FB advertising engine is complex, massive, they have huge ad sales division. This is the $$$ the pays for everything.

D) EU is still highly fragmented, and not an immigrant place like SV. Better to think of SV as really a 'global centre' that happens to be in America. Tons of talent from around the world, they come for the money and adventure, not so much to be 'American'.

E) Europeans value quality of life a lot, and in some things it's fine, but in some industries ... it means less competitive.

F) Europe esp. Germany, does not 'get' software in the way SV does.

So Europe has all the pieces but they are not quite aligned.

It's not at all 'easy' to fire on all cylinders and create amazing new experiences.

ByteDance et. al. have zillions of workers, working cheaply, often 7 days a week.

So Europe is good at R&D, Hardware, Lifestyle stuff, and stuff that doesn't need huge scale and major talent depth, things that don't move 24/7.

But EU is not going to build something 'better' than FB or Google anytime soon. But they discover good drugs and make good cars etc..

Re: TikTok’s Chinese owner offers to forego stake to clinch U.S. deal – sources

#435

Post by m0zg »

em500 wrote: post #422
m0zg wrote: post #416

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So I take it you'd be fine if, e.g. Yandex (the "Russian Google") entered the market then? Good to know. Or is that different somehow, in your mind?

Entered which market? Yandex works (and has always worked) fine in the US as far as I can tell. I'm not getting your point.

Social media (AKA "election interference") market. You're only pretending to "not get" my point.

Re: TikTok’s Chinese owner offers to forego stake to clinch U.S. deal – sources

#436

Post by spideymans »

wolco wrote: post #411
spideymans wrote: post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course TikTok won’t be growing at the same rate in 10 years time. That doesn’t mean it won’t still be a huge platform, however. In fact, I’d wager that, it TikTok plays their cards right, the platform could be bigger than YouTube within five years or so. I know it sounds crazy now, but there is nothing that dictates that YouTube’s model is the best for delivering democratized video publishing to the masses. I find…

TikTok is not a threat to youtube. Instagram maybe. Everyone has a place. Short videos on youtube are not rewarding and accounts are centered usually around one topic. On tiktok you follow a person who posts videos.. which are like moving instagram pictures . Instagram has been pushing videos but people are sharing more live stream longer content. The next big site will be pornhub meets tiktok. 90 seconds or less x-r…

TikTok has essentially three categories of users

1. Users that watch, but don’t post anything

2. Regular people that just post random things for fun. These people are essentially using it as instagram for video

3. People making relatively high quality content involving specific subject matter (vlogs, food, technology, sports, etc...). Essentially recreating YouTube channels on TikTok.

The service has historically been dominated by category 1 and 2, but we’re seeing more and more of category 3 now.

And keep in mind that I’m not saying YouTube will disappear - not in the least. There is space for both services to exist. However, TikTok will be capturing an increasing share of the creators that previously had no choice but to be on YouTube.

Re: TikTok’s Chinese owner offers to forego stake to clinch U.S. deal – sources

#438

Post by trnglina »

solarhoma wrote: post #279
billfruit wrote: post #195

As someone from the third world this leaves a very bad feeling if it happens. I do expect it runs into legal hurdles before that. Neither Apple nor Google have found TikTok problematic enough to delist them from their app stores. Neither is there charges that TikTok may have broken US laws. Banning something which hasn't broken US laws, on arbitrary grounds shouldn't be possible. The President shouldn't have authorit…

Google and Apple have not delisted tiktok because China is a huge market for the companies. They are playing the part of Switzerland.

Apple, maybe, but Google services don't operate in China.

Re: TikTok’s Chinese owner offers to forego stake to clinch U.S. deal – sources

#439

Post by inson »

Why there's a so much hype about blocking TikTok? China blocked multiple US websites by replicating them first and blocking them (Google, FB, Twitter), irony, isn't it? Were those websites against Chinese laws? I'm surprised by some people reacting negatively to this. P.S. I am not a pro Trump.

Re: TikTok’s Chinese owner offers to forego stake to clinch U.S. deal – sources

#440

Post by [deleted] »

wildrhythms wrote: post #429
albacur wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Chinese policy seems to have not significantly changed in the last 5 years towards the US, but on the other hand US seemed ever more keen and eger to pursue a hostile attitude towards China. For decades, China has blocked U.S. companies from fair competition, reneged on trade deals when it suits them, backed out of industrial partnerships after extracting the IP it deems useful, and generally been a bad trade partn…

The rationale in your comment is unconvincing to me. If Tiktok is breaking the law, that should come to light and be actioned like any other company breaking the law; likewise TOS violations on respective app stores. I haven't seen any reports to suggest that Tiktok is breaking U.S. law, have you? And if the rationale is, as you suggested, a retaliation against 'bad behavior for decades', what precedent would banning…

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