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TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer to leave the company

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31–40 of 242 posts

Re: TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer to leave the company

#31
post #19
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's your annual rate for being caught in the middle of a geopolitical superpower dispute?

I am highjacking your comment to express my confusion about this dispute. Not that it exists, but on what grounds it exists. Has TikTok done something that is materially different and worse from what, for example, Facebook has? Or is it only that they do similar things, but they originate from China?

There can be only one super power with global social media companies.

Re: TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer to leave the company

#32
post #19
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's your annual rate for being caught in the middle of a geopolitical superpower dispute?

I am highjacking your comment to express my confusion about this dispute. Not that it exists, but on what grounds it exists. Has TikTok done something that is materially different and worse from what, for example, Facebook has? Or is it only that they do similar things, but they originate from China?

They operate under the rules of a powerful political jurisdiction which is not particularly friendly to the US.

Here's a simplified version of how the government thinks about it:

If Facebook has data on a government employee, it's not a big deal, because Facebook stores that data in the US, and is friendly to the US, and if they do anything bad, they ultimately answer to the laws and regulations of the US government. These things are not necessarily the case for TikTok data.

This is pretty much the first time that a service operated under the laws of a US rival has become popular in the US.

Re: TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer to leave the company

#34

I'm confused on why he's leaving. Is the political scope of the role too much for him and/or is this not the role he intended to occupy?

The most likely reason is that they are very close to a deal (to sell the US operations) and the buyer wants him out.

Re: TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer to leave the company

#35
post #30
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trump is down 10+ points in the polls. That’s what this is about and TikTok only needs to run out the clock to the 2nd week of November at which point this whole thing will go away for them.

Yes Trump is probably using this as political leverage, but the US being concerned about Chinese govt possibly spying on Americans using Chinese companies dates back to the late 2000s. Cynically dismissing it as a Trumpian fluke masks the prior art/implies there’s no issue whatsoever. Edit: clarification.

That by itself doesn't mean that decision making in this case is not being influenced by political concerns of the current POTUS (rather than being driven by long term geopolitical interests of the nation).

Re: TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer to leave the company

#36
post #30
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trump is down 10+ points in the polls. That’s what this is about and TikTok only needs to run out the clock to the 2nd week of November at which point this whole thing will go away for them.

Yes Trump is probably using this as political leverage, but the US being concerned about Chinese govt possibly spying on Americans using Chinese companies dates back to the late 2000s. Cynically dismissing it as a Trumpian fluke masks the prior art/implies there’s no issue whatsoever. Edit: clarification.

Yes, China vs. the US is 50 years in the making, but Trump’s interest in the issue is 0% policy, 100% politics.

Re: TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer to leave the company

#38
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am highjacking your comment to express my confusion about this dispute. Not that it exists, but on what grounds it exists. Has TikTok done something that is materially different and worse from what, for example, Facebook has? Or is it only that they do similar things, but they originate from China?

They operate under the rules of a powerful political jurisdiction which is not particularly friendly to the US. Here's a simplified version of how the government thinks about it: If Facebook has data on a government employee, it's not a big deal, because Facebook stores that data in the US, and is friendly to the US, and if they do anything bad, they ultimately answer to the laws and regulations of the US government.…

Why hasn't this been a problem for Zoom? If somebody has data about government employees or even recordings of meetings then it is Zoom, not TikTok.

Re: TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer to leave the company

#39

I'm confused on why he's leaving. Is the political scope of the role too much for him and/or is this not the role he intended to occupy?

It's interesting that the "not enough scope" issue can also happen at the CEO level. My naive view was that CEO is in charge of everything, and thus have practically maximum scope. It turns out that is only the case for CEO who wants to stay with the company for a long time. For CEO who doesn't treat the company as their baby, they can potentially focus more on "building a resume" so they can move to be a CEO of a bi…

Kevin Mayer got passed over for the CEO position at Disney for an exec in the theme park division. From what I've read, this was somewhat unexpected.

Kevin wants to run a company of note with global scale, so he probably thought TikTok would be a good fit. He brings lots of media experience to what is, from one perspective, a media company.

He's probably severely disappointed that his incredibly short stint as CEO is being undone by US politics and M&A at big cap tech companies. Two major career opportunities followed by utter disappointment in less than six months. It's got to hurt, even with the amount of money he makes.

Re: TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer to leave the company

#40
post #29
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am highjacking your comment to express my confusion about this dispute. Not that it exists, but on what grounds it exists. Has TikTok done something that is materially different and worse from what, for example, Facebook has? Or is it only that they do similar things, but they originate from China?

The stated issue is that TikTok may share American user data with China and that there’s not any real way for the US to prevent this possibility. So it’s seen as a national security issue that the Chinese govt could track Americans. TikTok has insisted that there’s no way that user data could be shared with the Chinese govt but I think US regulation bodies and intelligence do not buy it.

No one with a brain believes it. When the government tells you to so something and the legal system allows it, you do it.
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