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Perplexity AI submits bid to merge with TikTok

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Re: Perplexity AI submits bid to merge with TikTok

#121

Post by viraptor »

matt_daemon wrote: post #71
fgblanch wrote: post #44

I don't know if it would come with the deal, but Bytedance web crawler is known to be the one with top number of requests per day among AI crawlers (src: https://blog.cloudflare.com/declaring-your-aindependence-blo... ) I guess one of Perplexity challenges is to have their own web index and of course that starts with having a powerful crawler. Also having a powerful crawler is useful for capturing tokens to train mod…

Funnily enough the Cloudflare blog identifies Perplexity engaging in dodgy practices to avoid robots.txt denylists: > Sadly, we’ve observed bot operators attempt to appear as though they are a real browser by using a spoofed user agent. We’ve monitored this activity over time, and we’re proud to say that our global machine learning model has always recognized this activity as a bot, even when operators lie about thei…

Lol, I had to report Facebook using the documented Facebook crawler UA, coming from Facebook ASN as a bot to them because they misclassified it. Don't expect too much from their global machine. I wonder if this case also included people manually reporting it...

Re: Perplexity AI submits bid to merge with TikTok

#122

Post by gitaarik »

dmazin wrote: post #118
paxys wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perplexity is useful as a thin layer of product over a base model. As Sam Altman said, eventually all such startups will be steamrolled by companies that own the models.

He might say that, but I think in fact the opposite is true. The models are getting commodified. The real value lies in distribution (access to customers) and consumer product skills.

Yeah, but the distributers are always depend on the models. And they'll have to pay their licenses. And the ones who control the model have quite an influence on all of us.

Re: Perplexity AI submits bid to merge with TikTok

#123

Post by ProllyInfamous »

paxys wrote: post #51
kissgyorgy wrote: post #20

It's a shame because Perplexity is BY FAR the most useful AI tool out there. This shows they have clearly no vision and won't be able to keep afloat.

Perplexity is useful as a thin layer of product over a base model. As Sam Altman said, eventually all such startups will be steamrolled by companies that own the models.

I have been using / fanboi'ing Perplexity since January 2022; overall, I am disappointed in the direction their product has been heading. While it is still the first URL I visit when I want apprentice-level help, I don't think this will be true for much longer.

If anybody at perplexity wants my more-direct feedback (beyond what I've submitted via your platform's conversations), my postal is listed in /hn/bio (I do not use email, so if your platform eventually `requires` this it's an immediate disusership from me dawg).

Re: Perplexity AI submits bid to merge with TikTok

#124

Post by kissgyorgy »

keyle wrote: post #34
kissgyorgy wrote: post #20

It's a shame because Perplexity is BY FAR the most useful AI tool out there. This shows they have clearly no vision and won't be able to keep afloat.

Please explain why do you think they're the most useful by far? Just curious of such a bold statement in a highly competitive space.

It starts with a search and reasoning from there. Cites the sources in the middle of the sentences so you can just click and verify, see the whole context.

It blows every "model only" service because it's 100x more accurate.

I use it instead of Google for every search now.

Re: Perplexity AI submits bid to merge with TikTok

#125

Post by [deleted] »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #100
fakedang wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bytedance without TikTok is still an order of magnitude worth more than Perplexity.

> Bytedance without TikTok is still an order of magnitude worth more than Perplexity They’re not buying Bytedance - TikTok, they’d be buying half of the piece of TikTok Bytedance would own after spinning it out to its non-Chinese shareholders.

[deleted]

Re: Perplexity AI submits bid to merge with TikTok

#126

Post by jsnell »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #65
jsnell wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn't really help here. TikTok is at an absolute minimum an order of magnitude more valuable than Perplexity, more likely two orders of magnitude. If ownership of NewCo was even roughly proportional to the market value each side is bringing, the ownership structure doesn't meaningfully change compared to TikTok. And when the ownership structure is the problem, it's obvious that this deal structured as a merger…

> TikTok is at an absolute minimum an order of magnitude more valuable than Perplexity, more likely two orders of magnitude They don't need to buy TikTok, they need to buy out Bytedance. If I had to structure it, I'd have Bytedance spin out TikTook to its U.S. shareholders and then arrange for Perplexity to buy enough of Bytedance's share that Bytedance holds a 49% (non-voting) interest.

I know. That's why I wrote "value of TikTok". Not market cap of ByteDance.

And to get a controlling share of the merged entity, you'd need to be bring hundreds of billions of value to the merger, not a clownshoes AI startup.

Re: Perplexity AI submits bid to merge with TikTok

#127

Post by maeil »

Yawrehto wrote: post #91

There are different types of merge. There's the 'look at it! It just makes sense !' type. There's the 'we wanted to do this thing but you're already doing it' merge. There's the 'let's be a monopoly!' merge, and its sibling, 'you are getting in the way of my aspirations to be a monopoly' merge. There's the quiet merge to deal with debts, the making-it-formal-but-functionally-we-were-already-merged, the hey-that-colla…

The "incredible free PR for almost no effort or money" pretend-merge.

Suddenly tens of millions of people are hearing about Perplexity who hadn't heard of it so far.

Re: Perplexity AI submits bid to merge with TikTok

#128

Post by crimsoneer »

paxys wrote: post #51
kissgyorgy wrote: post #20

It's a shame because Perplexity is BY FAR the most useful AI tool out there. This shows they have clearly no vision and won't be able to keep afloat.

Perplexity is useful as a thin layer of product over a base model. As Sam Altman said, eventually all such startups will be steamrolled by companies that own the models.

I mean, thanks to llama/deepseek, the models are now essentially free.

Re: Perplexity AI submits bid to merge with TikTok

#129

Post by yogthos »

mmiyer wrote: post #109
yogthos wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's true, but the sheer volume of users outside the US more than makes up for that.

I don't know about that - seems like US is close to half of Tiktok revenue: "TikTok took in an estimated $10 billion in revenue in the United States last year, he said, out of a total global revenue estimated at $20 billion to $26 billion." [1] 1. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/17/technology/tiktok-ban-byt...

US market isn't likely to grow much going forward though, while developing countries have a lot of growth potential. Meanwhile, TikTok is bringing in at least 10bln annually already. Pure profit isn't the only thing that makes it valuable though, it's one of the few global media platforms that's not owned by the US.

Re: Perplexity AI submits bid to merge with TikTok

#130

Post by bdangubic »

quantadev wrote: post #101
bdangubic wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

my God what social media does to people to write and believe stuff like this… hopefully one day everything will be banned… amazing to read this - just amazing what seemingly normal human being can be made into believing!

Aw, Silicon Valley doesn't want everything banned. They just want all ideas that go against their world view banned. lol.

99% of Facebook employees (including Zuck himself) were strongly in favor of censoring all conservative viewpoints, as well, and were in lock-step with Big Gov't controlling speech.

how can you write this with the straight face when top like 100 accounts spreading shit on Facebook are right-wing nutcases. Give me on popular left-wing nutcase on Facebook?! believing that conservative views on any social media platform were ever being supressed is downright craaaaazy :)

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