Isnt that pretty damn suspicious? We'd rather just shut down than sell it as a going concern?
this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2024
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It's obviously pretty valuable. How would we feel if say, China decided Microsoft/Google/AWS/Oracle had to sell to a Chinese company on the grounds of national security? They'd rather pull out too, despite China being a very large market too. Or what happens if other countries starts demanding the same?
Pretty sure ByteDance would rather keep their IP.
And if they sell, do they keep the rights for the other countries or it belongs to the US now?
They don't let our stuff operate there. It's only fair we treat them the same.
But we aren't them... right?
Paradox of tolerance, blah blah
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How would we feel if say, China decided Microsoft/Google/AWS/Oracle had to sell to a Chinese company on the grounds of national security?
But no one is saying that ByteDance has to sell TikTok to a US company. Just divest it to an owner that is not beholden to the Chinese government and obligated to share any and all data upon request. Compared to the legal requirements that China puts on US companies operating in China, this is a pretty tame ask.
Yeah but the 5 Eyes and their friends are everywhere outside of the CCPs borders. So if they really don't want to let the US have that algorithm, and probe the interfaces the CCP propaganda arm used to access the TikTok backend, there's few places overall that have a reason to buy it, and can also afford it.
AWS already had to effectively do this. AWS only exists in two regions in China because they licensed much of the AWS software to be run by a pair of Chinese-government affiliated ISPs inside China (that is, Amazon doesn’t run AWS in either of its China zones — it’s run by a pair of Chinese companies who license AWS’s software).
This is why the China AWS regions are often quite far behind in terms of functionality from every other region (they either haven’t licensed all the functionality, they don’t keep up-to-date at the same cadence as Amazon, or Amazon is holding certain functions back), and why you can’t really access them from the standard AWS console.
So in effect, Amazon did have to give their software to Chinese-government affiliated companies in order to continue operating in China.
Except that is what China already does. Cloud providers with regions in China have to utilize a local partner company which gives access to the whole tech stack. It’s a reason that AWS China regions were always so far behind in service offerings to the rest of the AWS regions.
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I think it's a gamble... Too many people love tiktok (don't ask me why) that they know the pressure on the gov would be terrible
More importantly, a forced sale (with a time limit to boot) is bound to fetch them the worst deal ever
I think they are calling their bluff
And before anyone comes at me with some stupid fallacy, no I don't love the Chinese government or I'm trying to imply tiktok has nothing to hide and it's the source of rainbows and warm sweet buns
They love tiktok because the algorithm works extremely well.
No other social media actually targets you as well as tiktok does. Instagram is constantly trying to shove you in the direction of whatever makes them the most money even if it's entirely unrelated to your interests. YouTube is clueless to what you like with shorts. Tiktok surfaces new content that is basically unseen anywhere else (thousands of views not millions) that perfectly fits your interests.
Could other platforms do the same thing? Probably: but they're too short sighted to do so.
Good to know .. I have honestly kept away from most social media after a stint in Reddit that pushed me here
I have never had a Facebook, insta, Google whatever social, tiktok, etc so I don't really get what people like there
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YouTube was going down that route but whole terriost pipeline deal durning the hight of the war on terror put big breaks on it. TikTok doesn't. Its actually wild how vastly different friends of mines tiktoks could be. Just all the most extreme version of anything their into. Had them all asking completely nuts things thinking it was everywhere. Like no sis I don't about the witches that are supposed to be doing something tonight, that was just an old qanon thread with new dates, wth is boy love anime?
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No?
The way you are speaking it's as if they mean to close down the whole thing. There is a whole rest of the world for them to operate in. Sure losing the US market would be a huge detriment, but the owners still might rather have it everywhere else, than keep it running in the US in someone else's hands.
They aren't being forced to sell their operations in the entire world, just the US. So, doesn't it make better financial sense, if all legal options to keep control fail, that they sell their US operation to another company, and at least get billions of dollars before exit, than to just lose the market and get not billions?
They don't want to seed a competitor with their tech.
They are going to get one when a western tech company copies them to fill the vacuum they left. Their only real advantage is their leg-up with their earlier footing. There is nothing particularly interesting in their software, it's easy to copy, and someone likely will. If they do not get a copycat, their crowd will move on to some other thing and, being in the same industry, will still be a competitor.
They are going to get one when a western tech company copies them to fill the vacuum they left.
When? Instagram/Facebook Reels are already a blatant copy. And YouTube Shorts is trying.
They don't want to compete with tiktok, they want them gone so they win without trying to make their own service better, which they could do, but they don't want to change what likely ends up being a more lucrative algorithm for them if they aren't dealing with competition. You know, American free market economics 🙄
A thing never mentioned in these debates is that noone in the world is buying tiktok without buying the underlying algorithm, the same algorithm the app runs on worldwide, the algorithm is the special sauce. They are not going to sell the basis for their app just for a single payday in the US market, which after buying it, they could rebrand and then once successful in the US, compete in the global market against tiktok but with the income of the most lucrative app market in the world behind them. It's an extremely stupid business move.
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The article talks about why they'd prefer to shut down if you take their word it. Essentially the US is such a tiny portion of ByteDances revenue, it would be more optimal to shut down then to risk the sale of their algorithm. Assuming they're using relatively similar algorithms on Douyin, and they don't want whoever they sell to to turn around and sell to their Chinese competition, which is where the real money is being made for ByteDance.
Bullshit, they're bluffing at best.
Average revenue per user is a pretty common industry benchmark, and the US absolutely slaughters the rest of the world. We're the fat, dumb, brainwashed cows the advertisers can't get enough of.
Is that really justified, or an example of selection bias?
Does it matter to a shareholder?
Not really. It depends on what it is. There are entire games and items that aren't available in the US, but make a killing in Asia.
Like, here's Genshin Impact numbers from 2023.
On that game, the US comes in at 7th, is less than half of the top country (Japan) and is notably behind Switzerland.
For Tik Tok specifically, we can look at their annual reports.
Let's look at average annual users per region. 682M in Asia Pacific, which does not include China. 192M in North America.
China's numbers are 750M daily.
I don't think most of their money comes from the US.
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Maybe the CCP is paying the difference?
It’s a scare tactic. You as a customer won’t care if the business gets a new owner but if they threaten to shut down all the kids they have will start kicking and screaming to make the government dial back the decision.
Makes the children screaming we are taking their toy away seem even more oblivious when the billion dollar corporation gives absolutely zero shits about losing the business.
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I mean I'd be all fucking for it and honestly take the rest of facebook with you if you could.
Yes, but this is not the way. The US needs federal privacy laws that would regulate all these tech companies. Instead, congress shows that they don't care about the privacy of US Americans; they just don't trust China.
Then, in one of the biggest FUs ever to the constitution, they expand the FISA amendment.
So everyone here is probably like "please do it" but I do wonder how the general populace would react. Would people actually miss TikTok if it just disappeared?
Nope. They'd probably move to YouTube shorts or some other lower quality copy of Vine.
They’d reluctantly use Shorts or Slides if there’s no alternative, but realistically it’ll be something new. TikTok’s absence creates a vacuum that could be a huge opportunity for a new platform.
I refuse to watch any vertical short videos but if I never see that bullshit fucking moving logo ever again, I’m happier
Doesn't pixelfed support shirt videos now?
We might even get pants videos in 2025.
What’s next? Hats? Shoes? The sky’s the limit.
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Which is in my opinion the actual goal here... The USA talks about free market and crap but usually cannot compete unless they make the rules, set the referees, start with double the money, can't go to jail and charge triple passing go
Either tiktok becomes an American company or leaves... Ah, the free market has spoken
Either tiktok becomes an American company or leaves… Ah, the free market has spoken
People keep saying this and I'm struggling to understand where this idea is coming from. The bill isn't saying that they have to sell TikTok to a US company. They don't have to sell it to the US government, or an owner in the US. Just divorce the company from explicit control by the Chinese government. Currently, the government can request any data they want from TikTok and they are obligated to provided it. Similarly, business laws in China mean that the government can also push changes down into the company, like a tweak to the algorithm to influence foreign perceptions of a topic for example.
The requirements laid out in this bill are meant to break that obligation and influence. It doesn't say who should own the company - only who shouldn't.
Currently, the government can request any data they want from TikTok and they are obligated to provided it.
You mean exactly like all big tech in the USA?
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TikTok creators I follow get miserable amounts of views on YouTube. Shorts algorithm is nowhere near as good as TT and it's missing loads of features that make TT unique. If those creators were forced to move they'd probably go with Instagram but that's a poor replacement too.
As a European I'm curious how TT will look like without Yanks. It's already much more usable after it was banned in India so there's that.
Because people who want tiktok content watch it in tiktok, and those who don't don't like the format in general.
If tiktok started hosting half an hour long documentaries it wouldn't be any wonder that nobody would watch them, as the userbase doesn't have the attention span for that and they aren't scrolling tiktok for that type of content.
I personally have only one user whose shorts I watch, B. Dylan Hollis. And even there I would much rather prefer longer videos, but I'll take what I can get.
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Or, just as likely, would download some VPN and go on.
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I'm curious about the practicality. IP addresses only roughly correlate to geographic location. Are they going to geofence their app?
Obviously the app can be removed from the US app stores, but I doubt they can prevent sideloading or just using a VPN to get access to a different country's app store. And what about all the devices that already have it installed? It's not like it will auto-delete.
It won't matter if there are ways to side load or circumvent, though. 99.9% of users will not be willing to be bothered with such things and the US market would effectively die for the app.
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it's not like it will auto-delete.
You're probably right it won't, but it definitely could be done by Apple and Google.
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Good.
Yah yah, sure sure.
Please oh please
Can’t fucking wait.
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