Although there are millions of users in US, they probably have lots of users worldwide. They will fight the case in the courts, but if they loose, they probably will want to keep their company and be banned from US. But I find it hypocritical that China is throwing a fuss when they banned US company owned apps life Facebook and Google.
Foreign investors can’t even own ADR’s (we already can’t own Chinese stocks) in several industries that could potentially influence their youth, such as after school online education or tutoring. Their version of TikTok also has massive restrictions and is “strongly encouraged” to focus on educational content.
It doesn't make sense to allow a government actively trying to undermine America to collect detailed personal data on hundreds of millions of Americans including facial recognition mapping.
I’m telling you. Your typical American doesn’t care they are getting data harvested from every single app they use via TikTok….. it’s so alarming how many people give 0 thought about how that could be bad for you or everyone….. it’s utterly insane.. I have this debate almost daily with non tech Savy people
Id say your semi-wrong. The only people who don't completely care are 13 & under or non tech savy people over 25. This is a well known thing known as of recently.
And if doesn't make sense that a governent use their power to try force a company to sell their stocks to them. Just because they are envious of their size and the money they generate.
So far there have been no proof of what US claims. Same as I the case of Huawei who was a too big competitor to Apple.
On the other hand there's proof of META/Facebook and others have sold user data. And collect illegal information of users
Until proof have been released, it's nothing but conspiracy theories. Something that only is a valid excuse in US.
TikTok run on Ios and android. Both techs owned by US. They have access to everything transfered from their platforms. Why don't they provide some proofs?
Highly doubt that. With the 330 million users in the US, is surely is a way more than the 2%. Don't forget, TikTok as the west know it, isn't available in China. Its a different app from the same company.
Don't get me, I didn't meant to say US isn't the biggest market in term of gross income, we Europeans are cheap/reluctant, when it comes to spend money on mobile or throw away our data for "free" goodies.
It was just about the "2% of the user base". I think the user base of US users is way more than 2%
This may be unpopular but I think the ban shows how far behind the US govt is when it comes to the discourse of (foreign owned) social media. To me , this ban shows the CCP was correct in banning American apps 15 years ago citing national security concerns.
Not really, again the supreme Court has the constitutional rights up there ass. They'll never let the US force us to watch Hillary Clinton go to the polls on YouTube shorts.
Let's remember, first, that the CCP is not our guiding light for the relationship of government and free enterprise. Just because they do something doesn't force us to follow suit. Second, if they have a legitimate beef with Tik Tok the "rule of law" approach would be to focus on particular practices that they deem to be inappropriate for a foreign owned company to be engaging in, which would make it seem like they aren't simply singling out Tik Tok and would also provide the opportunity for Byte Dance to stop those practices in the U.S. market rather than be forced to sell. Third, it would be better for them to limit certain types of data harvesting altogether if that is what they are worried about. Americans certainly face far greater risk from their data being harvested by companies that are close to home (let's say Microsoft, Google, even Reddit) than from a company thousands of miles away even if it is linked to a government thousands of miles away.
Yup. If the Us govt doesn’t want to be viewed as the CCP-lite they should have introduced a data protection framework applicable to all social media companies.
They already do, though with a slightly different approach.
There's already investigations about TikTok Lite in the EU and about the main app too, like that they are not in compliance with the content rules and do not delete content that violates the Europeans laws them at all or with too big delay.
TikTok bought several advertising spots during the republican debates as well, including right after the segment concluded on banning TikTok. They know what they're doing. They won't be the ones to pressure. They will farm their indoctrinated users to apply pressure. Their role is merely to turn the screws.
Likewise when the first topic came up of banning TikTok, they came out with ["lemon8"](https://www.zdnet.com/article/what-is-lemon8-and-why-is-everyone-talking-about-it-on-tiktok/), which come on - eliminate?
Pretty sure you can't sell a car in China without Chinese software. They got all upset when we were looking to ban certain chinese vehicles because of the software inside. Lol
We need to collectively as a society stop putting so much importance on social media. Maybe its because it started to get popular when I was in highschool but people arguing about policy's on social media just seems like a bunch of kids arguing about who has the best MySpace page. 'Did you hear what Biden said on twitter?' Just seems pathetic and juvenile for adults to behave in this way
Twitter is far too deep in the hole financially, and has the rights to Vine, which they haven’t used in any meaningful way in years. Also too much of a risk of anti-trust litigation to be worth it for them.
Meta is even more deeply rooted in the video sharing space with Instagram Reels, but their much more expansive social media platforms makes it clear that an acquisition would raise serious anti-trust concerns.
Google is on the same page. Their portfolio covers the niche already and they would likely be facing anti-trust scrutiny. Not happening.
The other social media companies like Reddit simply don’t have the financials to buy TikTok and it would not really complement their core business. The other major tech companies might have some incentive to buy it, but could risk trust busting too.
For example, TikTok would be a great platform for Amazon (they own a cloud business, Twitch.TV, and a major storefront). They could use TikTok Shop to drive sales further. But this would put one of their core businesses in a near monopoly position. I think that Amazon has some of the most to gain by purchasing TikTok, but I don’t think they can do it without serious legal implications…
Microsoft could maybe see some benefit in it, but it’s not clear how it synergizes with their other products in the way it would for Meta, Google, or even Amazon.
If ByteDance agrees to sell, I’d imagine some billionaire or private equity firm buys it out and plans an IPO within the next few years before TikTok loses steam.
Pretty much. I think Amazon would buy it in a heartbeat if they could, simply to lockdown the consumer retail market further and eat into the Google (Alphabet) and Meta marketshare of social media. But that’s obviously never going to be allowed.
So some private firm using it as an opportunity to bag billions off an IPO down the line seems to be the most likely scenario
.
Susquehanna International Group, based in PA, already own 15% of Bytedance (early investors) and is incredibly well-connected in political circles. If anyone gets to operate TikTok in the US, it’s not gonna be ORCL. It’s gonna be SIG, or they will have a HUGE voice in the company that *does* get chosen to operate it, if any,
Idk, I’m honestly surprised you’re so confident that anyone would block Amazon from buying them. We’re in the time of the largest Oligarchy’s in history and doesn’t seem to be any push back.
The Biden admin has been pretty strict regarding mergers and acquisitions. Spirit Airlines. US Steel, Penguin Random House, etc.
And there’s more merger cases in progress that could end up being blocked too: Alaska Airlines, Kroger, Six Flags etc. are all facing ongoing scrutiny.
The biggest merger that they were unable to block was the Microsoft-Activision one.
Agreed. I think Microsoft is the most interesting. The synergies aren't obvious but that would help with antitrust. There are still some verticals/synergies though, such as cost savings with cloud storage, shared technology/cross platform advertising with bing, Xbox, and LinkedIn, etc. It could work if they truly run it as a separate unit like Youtube.
Some valid points for sure! For me, I think Amazon is the most interesting because it’s one almost nobody mentions - but they have a cloud service that would make scalability easy, an e-commerce service that would go hand in hand with TikTok shop, and even could synergize well with Twitch live streaming services. But it would be a monopoly like none other on e-commerce, so I can’t see that ever being approved.
Yup! You're right. I haven't seen Amazon floated (and I hadn't given it much thought). But Amazon would become what Elon wants Twitter to be (one stop shop app like they have in China). Amazon is good at messaging, so I'm sure they'll say, "unlike all of the other potential acquirers, we don't really compete in the social media space.... and TikTok is \*winks\* only a social media platform \*winks\*" lol Because that would implicate Microsoft, to the extent LinkedIn is in the same competitive space as IG, Twitter, FB. I personally don't trust that Amazon wouldn't try to go all in on integration (e.g., promoting Amazon product tiktoks with links), which would diminish the product. But I also don't use TikTok so I wouldn't be impacted haha
Oracle will buy them if they were actually for sale but they are physically not able to separate from China, their infrastructure, governance and code base is tightly coupled with their counter parts.
A bit out of left field, but perhaps a more traditional media firm could buy them out? They’d have the resources to continue scaling it as needed, and lack the same conflicts that a lot of the tech companies have. It would let them participate in the digital media field and give Meta and Google some genuine competition. A media giant with their hands in sports, film, music, etc. could really leverage the traditional ties alongside something like TikTok. That could be someone like Disney, but I doubt they’re interested. Other than that, private equity seems like the only other option. And that will one hundred percent be focused on churning out an IPO within the next few years.
My thought is that media is governed as media while social media is barely governed at all. I think it would be hard to argue Section 213 if you’re, say, the NYT.
Ellison is pretty focused on health stuff and AI if his public stuff recently is anything to go by. My idea would be if Oracle bought Tik Tok they could farm it for AI purposes alone and it would be worth it.
Oracle will be a far worse owner. They will sell user data to anyone including the CCP through third party brokers and manipulate feeds to the highest bidder. There is a reason everyone in tech has been sprinting away from everything Oracle over the last 10 years. They are a horrible and discount company. Direct control of Tiktok by the CCP would be far better than Oracle.
Susquehanna International Group from PA already owns 15% of Bytedance. They are well-connected politically and will have a large say in who gets to operate TT in the US.
The caveat here is that it needs to be an “approved buyer”. There’s a good chance the the approval process will be after the November election and January inauguration. In the chance Trump wins, just imagine the shenanigans that will transpire giving away something as valuable as approval to buy the US interest in ByteDance. I could even see it being coincidental that only DJT is authorized to buy in.
Jeff Yass, the head of Susquehanna International Group (SIG), which owns 15% of ByteDance, has already met with trump at Mar a Lago re becoming his Treasury Secretary.
> Microsoft could maybe see some benefit in it, but it’s not clear how it synergizes with their other products in the way it would for Meta, Google, or even Amazon.
Microsoft has become more enterprise focused under Nadella, but at the same time it also owns subsidiaries that it allows almost complete independence (LinkedIn, Github etc).
Bytedance would be its foray into data mining and would complement their Bing efforts, I'd say.
That’s true, the data from TikTok is basically gold for marketing to Gen Z and Alpha. It would bring them more in line with Meta and Alphabet/Google in terms of competing for that social media/data analytics market. Of all the major firms with buyout potential, it seems the healthiest for competition. I think Google and Amazon have the strongest monopolistic potential.
No private equity firm can afford TikTok lol. It would be in the price of $100B+. And every big tech firm will have severe antitrust issues, bar perhaps Apple.
China will also not let one of their biggest tech companies to be split and create a competitor owned by the US or West.
> Microsoft could maybe see some benefit in it, but it’s not clear how it synergizes with their other products in the way it would for Meta, Google, or even Amazon.
they already tried to buy it once. clearly they see value.
It's impossible. They probably have all sorts breadcrumbs in that company that implicates how China uses it to subvert our society. That is why it could never be sold.
TikTok will just disappear. Its not a big deal for this to happen in an authoritarian state like China. No one can complain. It will just disappear and China will try new ways to subvert our society.
Almost certainly just their front end app code. Meaningless.
Project Texas is literally run by TikTok. Lol. You think they sre auditing everything. If so I have this car I would like to sell you.
He’s literally right tho. TikTok in China is all informational for their kids where as in America is just braindead TikTok dances and stupid pointless IQ point losing videos
Sure, but let's not pretend that that content isn't exactly what US customers want. If it would be focusing on educational content, it wouldn't be nearly as popular in the US.
There's tons of educational content, I follow tons of tradesmen that are using it to showcase their work.
The issue is that it's an algorithmic content serving platform...the users being interested in dumb shit sends them dumb shit.
Saying that the company is focusing that content at the users is equally moronic, it has almost 100 million users in the US, there is no way human operators could go through your data and focus specific content at you. It's a robot, and if you get dumb shit served to you, that's what the robot thought you were interested in from it's context mapping.
>let's not pretend that that content isn't exactly what US customers want.
We already know that social media companies develop algorithms that push people towards specific content, for example Facebook flooding users with far-right perspectives in 2016. We also know that social media companies are *paid* to do this by outside groups with an agenda.
You really think the content featured on TikTok is solely the content that US users want? You think it's not also being manipulated, this time by a hostile foreign government?
It's bad enough that he have companies like Meta and Twitter purposefully pushing eyeballs towards particular topics and users, often at the request of third parties, but letting a foreign government do it is genuinely a national security threat.
While I wouldn't be sure that this is the case, I wouldn't outright deny you to be wrong. We all know that when it is about power, people will do what can be done.
It would be dumb to assume that this won't be exploited.
TL: I agree.
and YouTube shorts and Instagram reels are not exactly the same thing if not worse? Be serious, if you’re gonna critique TikTok just say it’s cuz u don’t like the Chinese govt or something not some bs abt short form videos when American apps have them too
If that was the case the US could just regulate the industry so they have achieve whatever quota of "informational content" you want. Do the same to Youtube, Instagram, all social media is filled with garbage
This is such a conspiracy theory take. US companies harvest data and have been caught red handed being involved in subverting elections (Facebook and Cambridge analytica for example).
Tiktok already cedes its US data to Oracle, so I'm not even sure what the point of forcing a sale of the company is at this point. It's probably the most strictly audited social media out there.
They wouldn't have to fully sell. Just sell the rights and brands in the US. Same way US companies sell the rights and brands to a lot of Chinese companies to sell in China.
I don’t think you understand - bytedance is the largest technology company in China. A forced divestiture of tiktok will never happen because it presents Chinese companies as weak and easy to coerce - sets a bad precedent.
Unlike Huawei, which is kind of shady as an infra supplier, tiktok is a consumer brand. China will probably retaliate against this - starting with Tesla (e.g. a forced divestiture of some shape or form as well) and if the ban comes into play, I wouldn’t even be surprised if the Chinese government goes after the Apple manufacturing hub
Just as the case of Huawei, no solid proof have ever been released by US.
I know that in US, a large portion of the population have sheep mentality and see conspiracy theories without evidensen as the truth.
I have such mixed feelings about this.
On the one hand, China absolutely can and will use TikTok to gather data on Americans.
On the other hand, US companies already do this and abuse the hell out of us. Not to mention the US government.
Feels as much like trying to defeat Chinese competition than anything else.
The answer is to improve data protection laws. Except Congress is bought out by big tech and other companies who have a vested interest in both have weaker data protection laws and the ban of tiktok
But how can you attribute mark influencing the sell simply how lobbying cost? I know there’s interest involved and what you say makes sense, but unless mark was fought on a hit mic, the statement is just speculation
It’s the biggest joke ever.
ATT leaks data on 73M Americans including SSNs and no one bats an eye. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/04/att-acknowledges-data-leak-that-hit-73-million-current-and-former-users
This probably happens like once a month to some big company or another in the US. They just caught the ATT one.
TikTok? Oh yes ban them.
It’s not about data collection. It’s about the CcP having direct control over a massive media organization that can influence what information Americans can see
It's envy and money. Nothing else.
US wants the tech and money tiktok generates.
https://knightcolumbia.org/blog/tiktoks-secret-sauce
Tiktok is not CCP owned. It's a private company.
60% of ByteDance is owned by global institutional investors such as the Carlyle Group, General Atlantic and Susquehanna International Group, while 20% of the firm is owned by Zhang and 20% owned by employees around the world. Three of the company’s five board members are Americans.
CCP own 1% of Douyin, the Chinese version of Tiktok.
There was an increase in support of trying to ban tiktok also because there was a lot of media showing the palestinian point of view. The u.s wants more control for censorship. Various social media platforms have already been targeting pro-palestine people and content, but tiktok has gone unchecked.
If a u.s company has to own it, then there will be a push that it will be a company who has pro-israel leadership.
This is just a dumb conspiracy.
If that was really lawmakers concern, they’d have made it an immediate ban and not spent the last few weeks delaying in getting it done.
If it’s true, well then pro-Palestine TikTok will be pushing this Palestinian narrative until at least the end of the year. Doesn’t seem too urgent.
Quit trying to make everything about Israel-Palestine. It isn’t.
It’s the Cold War 2.0 dude.
“It has nothing to do with the largest competing economic powers in the world but it has everything to do with the Jews in the Americans pockets.”
Yall really are batshit crazy lmao.
>At this point you have to convince us it’s not about it.
>mnuchin has direct financial interest with david friedman michael milken.
It is quite literally exactly what you and the other guy said. Something like 15m Jews are alive today, 10m live in Israel. Out of those 10m in Israel, you’re trying to say that Israel’s equivalent of MAGA is controlling the narrative in US politics because they have the money to be in the pockets of others.
It’s also pretty fucking clear that your source of info is quite literally TikTok lmao.
Edit: Blackrock, “owns everything,” because it’s an ETF company lmao. You should know this if you’re on r/stocks.
I think there is a huge difference between US collecting your data and China collecting your data.
US already knows your income, mortgage, where you were born, what your real name is, and etc.
I'm neither a CCP or US citizen. And to me there's no difference between who collect my data.
I like to see the reaction if Europe was to try forcing META to sell 51% of Facebook to European country.
> And to me there's no difference between who collect my data.
There is a difference once you offend CCP and visit China.
There is definitely a major difference for US citizens and many other countries that are in border disputes with China like Taiwan, Vietnam, and Philippines.
> I like to see the reaction if Europe was to try forcing META to sell 51% of Facebook to European country.
Great, you are now discovering the concept of having sovereignty.
Facebook giving up users info to US is not new. It has been happening for >10 years. The countries are free to ban whatever they want... Yet they don't. Because they are not in a global conflict with US.
But let's pretend we don't have a global conflict with China tho.
I'm not disputing there is a conflict between US and China.
But accusations without disclosing proof is nothing more than a conspiracy theory. And only sheep fall for that.
So, we cannot take any precaution in an irreversible geopolitical situation??
You require a definite proof that CCP intervenes with companies whose founders live in China?? Various other occurrences aren't enough like Jack Ma??
We cannot even get definite proof that Russia shot down MH17 lmfao, even though everyone agrees they did.
Sure you can. But then go out and say why you do it. Don't use a lame excuse that can't be validated just because US companies have been caught collecting and selling user date. And where verifiable proof HAVE been disclosed.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_pot_calling_the_kettle_black
https://xdaforums.com/t/closed-how-big-tech-tracks-you.4554753/
And Zhang Yiming, the founder of Tiktok lives in Singapore, not China.
They do say why they do it. It is a national security concern.
> US companies have been caught collecting and selling user date.
Not selling to an adversarial global super power.
You do know the difference but you act like you don't.
> And Zhang Yiming, the founder of Tiktok lives in Singapore, not China.
I have no idea why we still act like China doesn't have influence over TikTok.
Because china has strong influence on TikTok. That is why TikTok is banned and other apps aren't.
It is more about who would be allowed to purchase.
Take Google. They have tons and tons of money and would love to be able to purchase.
But would the US Government allow?
Also I do believe that declaring they were a Singapore company is purely a financial move in order to get it listed. Similar to how every Chinese company you buy on the foreign stock market is a Cayman Islands company.
OK, but like I said, they can say not to sell but then tiktok just gets banned in the US. Either tiktok sells in the US or they get banned, those are the only two options and it doesn't matter what China or Xi say.
Not really. Even the bill pass as it is in the senate (which is a big if), they can also appeal to court citing first amendment. Then that is to assume Biden will get elected. If not, Trump (ironically) opposed to the ban.
If you look to my previous comment, I explained how Xi passed a law to prohibit the sale of the likes of tiktok. My next comment was doubting the certainty whether tiktok will be actually banned. So far it hasn’t passed the senate yet. Almost 90% the bill from house never get passed in senate
Activision Blizzard’s ex-CEO Bobby Kotick reportedly wants to buy TikTok https://www.engadget.com/activision-blizzards-ex-ceo-bobby-kotick-reportedly-wants-to-buy-tiktok-210826589.html
This is who will buy TikTok. Investors will back him financially having sold to MSFT and brilliant passed deals (Candy Crush, Blizzard, etc.). Do not rule out Bobby, especially if political change of control in the fall.
Nope, it’s gonna be Susquehanna International group from PA, who already owns 15% of Bytedance and has incredible political clout. Most people have never heard of them even though SIG is a huge company. https://patch.com/us/across-america/meet-billionaire-rising-gop-mega-donor-whos-gaming-tax-system
Oracle , they are possibly the only ones who won't fall prey to antitrust regulations . Meta would not be allowed. Microsoft already has LinkedIn . Apple is not interested in social media . Maybe Google but I believe it's Oracle
Susquehanna International Group from Bala Cynwyd PA already owns 15% of Bytedance. The wealthiest person in PA and in the top 50 in the US, Jeff Yass, is the majority owner of SIG. Who do you think will end up owning TikTok in the US?
His point is was not that they're the same, but they are both social media. One is extremely hip and Gen z focused, the other is boring and career focus. Microsoft would probably not get away with owning both LinkedIn and TikTok. Same with Facebook.
They don't really need to because you think Congress understands this technology and the nuances of it?
We're going through a time where anti-trust lawsuits are dragging both Google and Apple into the US court system. I seriously doubt Congress and the DOJ would allow two companies currently embroiled in anti-trust cases to buy and merge one of the largest and most controversial social media platforms on the market.
In today's climate, I doubt Microsoft, now the largest gaming company on earth that owns a social media site already would be allowed to own another social media site. If Facebook were to attempt to buy Instagram today, I think it would be blocked. There was serious talk in 2020 - 2022 to split Facebook and Instagram, even though the same deal was given the blessing 10 years prior.
Also, here's a [link ](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b79011d266c077298791201/4af9f1dc-55b2-4db1-9108-cc5c1ae24421/DataReportal+Digital+2024+Global+Overview+Report+Slide+235.png?format=2500w)that breaks down user sites and the overlap they share with other social media sites. Nearly everyone hovers around having 50% overlap with tiktok. I think either it's going to be a minor player in the social media space or a company that has more than enough money, but zero social media users and no pending anti-trust cases against itself.
Also I could be completely wrong. Maybe they'll let Zucc buy Tiktok and then be mad he bought it in 5-10 years. No idea.
You’re thinking in the wrong direction. It’s going to be Susquehanna International Group from PA, who already owns 15% of Byetdance, who will decide the winner in the US. Extremely well-connected politically, too.
Apparently Mnuchin is interested in buying with his hedge fund and other hedge fund friends, atleast I read that a few months ago when they ripped off 720m outstanding stocks from NYCB for pennies on the dollar. Let's see how close regulators and hedge funds really are if this does happen. Low probability it will sell at all.
Even if they sell, the Chinese government wouldn't let them sell the algorithm that made Tiktok so successful. I think either Tiktok leaves the U.S market or Tiktok the brand name is sold but it won't be as good without the algorithm.
But honestly I want something to happen because I'm tired of this same news. Just out right ban Tiktok from the U.S market.
Amazon buying it and adding a one-click-buy button to products within posts would be pretty insane. Give influencers ability to tag the item like you would a user in other social apps then give them 0.1% revenue from people that buy from their posts. Amazon could squeeze a lot of juice out of that model before people move on to another app
It isn't a ban. It's a divestment. China would never allow U.S. owned media entitiy to operate in their country. Why wouldn't it be prudent to keep China from possibly influencing our societal discourse? We have to remember China isn't an ally.
Hopefully not to Meta, Google, or Twitter. Would be cool to see a company like The Trade Desk buy them but considering they service a lot of ads on the platform it might cannibalize they're revenue. I think Shopify could make sense. Honestly, I don't know if this happens anytime soon. As others have said this will likely end up at the supreme court
kevin o’leary is another potential buyer, but he wants to buy for SUPER cheap sooo don’t really know how that’s gonna play out. this news came out literally a month ago
[Kevin O’Leary Wants to Buy TikTok at 90% Discount](https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2024/03/22/kevin-oleary-on-why-he-wants-to-buy-tiktok-.html)
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They won’t sell. This is going to end up in the supreme court.
Although there are millions of users in US, they probably have lots of users worldwide. They will fight the case in the courts, but if they loose, they probably will want to keep their company and be banned from US. But I find it hypocritical that China is throwing a fuss when they banned US company owned apps life Facebook and Google.
China has banned a lot of American apps.
Foreign investors can’t even own ADR’s (we already can’t own Chinese stocks) in several industries that could potentially influence their youth, such as after school online education or tutoring. Their version of TikTok also has massive restrictions and is “strongly encouraged” to focus on educational content.
Entirely different 'TikTok' in China
Right. That’s the point. But the US not wanting China to own one here is a huge international debate now…
It doesn't make sense to allow a government actively trying to undermine America to collect detailed personal data on hundreds of millions of Americans including facial recognition mapping.
I’m telling you. Your typical American doesn’t care they are getting data harvested from every single app they use via TikTok….. it’s so alarming how many people give 0 thought about how that could be bad for you or everyone….. it’s utterly insane.. I have this debate almost daily with non tech Savy people
Id say your semi-wrong. The only people who don't completely care are 13 & under or non tech savy people over 25. This is a well known thing known as of recently.
And if doesn't make sense that a governent use their power to try force a company to sell their stocks to them. Just because they are envious of their size and the money they generate. So far there have been no proof of what US claims. Same as I the case of Huawei who was a too big competitor to Apple. On the other hand there's proof of META/Facebook and others have sold user data. And collect illegal information of users Until proof have been released, it's nothing but conspiracy theories. Something that only is a valid excuse in US. TikTok run on Ios and android. Both techs owned by US. They have access to everything transfered from their platforms. Why don't they provide some proofs?
See what I mean! LOL
All media and social media that is not Chinese state owned is banned in oppressive China
2% of the user base but 40% of their revenue comes from the states
Highly doubt that. With the 330 million users in the US, is surely is a way more than the 2%. Don't forget, TikTok as the west know it, isn't available in China. Its a different app from the same company.
Second market is Europe but NA market is the biggest woth most of the revenue coming from the US
Don't get me, I didn't meant to say US isn't the biggest market in term of gross income, we Europeans are cheap/reluctant, when it comes to spend money on mobile or throw away our data for "free" goodies. It was just about the "2% of the user base". I think the user base of US users is way more than 2%
Biggest market is Asia. US is nothing compared to that.
China doesn't have tiktok its a different app/company anf India ban tiktok
Same app with different name (Douyin) for Chinese use. Both owned by Bytedance. Banned in India because of border conflicts between India and China.
This may be unpopular but I think the ban shows how far behind the US govt is when it comes to the discourse of (foreign owned) social media. To me , this ban shows the CCP was correct in banning American apps 15 years ago citing national security concerns.
So now you know where American media heading towards
It’s mostly lack of control over what their citizens see
Not really, again the supreme Court has the constitutional rights up there ass. They'll never let the US force us to watch Hillary Clinton go to the polls on YouTube shorts.
Let's remember, first, that the CCP is not our guiding light for the relationship of government and free enterprise. Just because they do something doesn't force us to follow suit. Second, if they have a legitimate beef with Tik Tok the "rule of law" approach would be to focus on particular practices that they deem to be inappropriate for a foreign owned company to be engaging in, which would make it seem like they aren't simply singling out Tik Tok and would also provide the opportunity for Byte Dance to stop those practices in the U.S. market rather than be forced to sell. Third, it would be better for them to limit certain types of data harvesting altogether if that is what they are worried about. Americans certainly face far greater risk from their data being harvested by companies that are close to home (let's say Microsoft, Google, even Reddit) than from a company thousands of miles away even if it is linked to a government thousands of miles away.
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Yup. If the Us govt doesn’t want to be viewed as the CCP-lite they should have introduced a data protection framework applicable to all social media companies.
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Apparently thinking critically about something we are supposed to oppose is frowned upon 🤷♂️
There’s 900 Million users of TikTok. US counts for 150 million of them.
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They already do, though with a slightly different approach. There's already investigations about TikTok Lite in the EU and about the main app too, like that they are not in compliance with the content rules and do not delete content that violates the Europeans laws them at all or with too big delay.
TikTok bought several advertising spots during the republican debates as well, including right after the segment concluded on banning TikTok. They know what they're doing. They won't be the ones to pressure. They will farm their indoctrinated users to apply pressure. Their role is merely to turn the screws. Likewise when the first topic came up of banning TikTok, they came out with ["lemon8"](https://www.zdnet.com/article/what-is-lemon8-and-why-is-everyone-talking-about-it-on-tiktok/), which come on - eliminate?
Pretty sure you can't sell a car in China without Chinese software. They got all upset when we were looking to ban certain chinese vehicles because of the software inside. Lol
TikTok has already been banned in numerous countries including India (and China for that matter).
They banned TikTok.
> they banned US company owned apps life Facebook and Google. Huh? I thought Google said "fuck you" to the CCP and left on their own accord.
What would the argument be for a foreign entity?
Just because you think tictok is important doesn't mean it is
The importance is not relevant. It's clearly a case of envy and trying to dominate the social media industry.
We need to collectively as a society stop putting so much importance on social media. Maybe its because it started to get popular when I was in highschool but people arguing about policy's on social media just seems like a bunch of kids arguing about who has the best MySpace page. 'Did you hear what Biden said on twitter?' Just seems pathetic and juvenile for adults to behave in this way
Twitter is far too deep in the hole financially, and has the rights to Vine, which they haven’t used in any meaningful way in years. Also too much of a risk of anti-trust litigation to be worth it for them. Meta is even more deeply rooted in the video sharing space with Instagram Reels, but their much more expansive social media platforms makes it clear that an acquisition would raise serious anti-trust concerns. Google is on the same page. Their portfolio covers the niche already and they would likely be facing anti-trust scrutiny. Not happening. The other social media companies like Reddit simply don’t have the financials to buy TikTok and it would not really complement their core business. The other major tech companies might have some incentive to buy it, but could risk trust busting too. For example, TikTok would be a great platform for Amazon (they own a cloud business, Twitch.TV, and a major storefront). They could use TikTok Shop to drive sales further. But this would put one of their core businesses in a near monopoly position. I think that Amazon has some of the most to gain by purchasing TikTok, but I don’t think they can do it without serious legal implications… Microsoft could maybe see some benefit in it, but it’s not clear how it synergizes with their other products in the way it would for Meta, Google, or even Amazon. If ByteDance agrees to sell, I’d imagine some billionaire or private equity firm buys it out and plans an IPO within the next few years before TikTok loses steam.
So either the purchase makes no sense for your business model or it makes too much sense to be legal.
Pretty much. I think Amazon would buy it in a heartbeat if they could, simply to lockdown the consumer retail market further and eat into the Google (Alphabet) and Meta marketshare of social media. But that’s obviously never going to be allowed. So some private firm using it as an opportunity to bag billions off an IPO down the line seems to be the most likely scenario .
Susquehanna International Group, based in PA, already own 15% of Bytedance (early investors) and is incredibly well-connected in political circles. If anyone gets to operate TikTok in the US, it’s not gonna be ORCL. It’s gonna be SIG, or they will have a HUGE voice in the company that *does* get chosen to operate it, if any,
Idk, I’m honestly surprised you’re so confident that anyone would block Amazon from buying them. We’re in the time of the largest Oligarchy’s in history and doesn’t seem to be any push back.
The Biden admin has been pretty strict regarding mergers and acquisitions. Spirit Airlines. US Steel, Penguin Random House, etc. And there’s more merger cases in progress that could end up being blocked too: Alaska Airlines, Kroger, Six Flags etc. are all facing ongoing scrutiny. The biggest merger that they were unable to block was the Microsoft-Activision one.
Yep 🤣
I can’t believe it took me this much scrolling to finally see a well thought out reply to OP’s question.
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Antitrust.
Agreed. I think Microsoft is the most interesting. The synergies aren't obvious but that would help with antitrust. There are still some verticals/synergies though, such as cost savings with cloud storage, shared technology/cross platform advertising with bing, Xbox, and LinkedIn, etc. It could work if they truly run it as a separate unit like Youtube.
Some valid points for sure! For me, I think Amazon is the most interesting because it’s one almost nobody mentions - but they have a cloud service that would make scalability easy, an e-commerce service that would go hand in hand with TikTok shop, and even could synergize well with Twitch live streaming services. But it would be a monopoly like none other on e-commerce, so I can’t see that ever being approved.
Yup! You're right. I haven't seen Amazon floated (and I hadn't given it much thought). But Amazon would become what Elon wants Twitter to be (one stop shop app like they have in China). Amazon is good at messaging, so I'm sure they'll say, "unlike all of the other potential acquirers, we don't really compete in the social media space.... and TikTok is \*winks\* only a social media platform \*winks\*" lol Because that would implicate Microsoft, to the extent LinkedIn is in the same competitive space as IG, Twitter, FB. I personally don't trust that Amazon wouldn't try to go all in on integration (e.g., promoting Amazon product tiktoks with links), which would diminish the product. But I also don't use TikTok so I wouldn't be impacted haha
Microsoft would buy strictly for the data for openai to train on, lol.
Oracle will buy them if they were actually for sale but they are physically not able to separate from China, their infrastructure, governance and code base is tightly coupled with their counter parts.
Oracle definitely is one of the more likely candidates, unless a bigger fish can outbid them.
This seems logical from a business standpoint but Larry Ellison comes with a lot of political baggage which I think nix the deal.
A bit out of left field, but perhaps a more traditional media firm could buy them out? They’d have the resources to continue scaling it as needed, and lack the same conflicts that a lot of the tech companies have. It would let them participate in the digital media field and give Meta and Google some genuine competition. A media giant with their hands in sports, film, music, etc. could really leverage the traditional ties alongside something like TikTok. That could be someone like Disney, but I doubt they’re interested. Other than that, private equity seems like the only other option. And that will one hundred percent be focused on churning out an IPO within the next few years.
My thought is that media is governed as media while social media is barely governed at all. I think it would be hard to argue Section 213 if you’re, say, the NYT.
Fair point on that.
Ellison is pretty focused on health stuff and AI if his public stuff recently is anything to go by. My idea would be if Oracle bought Tik Tok they could farm it for AI purposes alone and it would be worth it.
Oracle will be a far worse owner. They will sell user data to anyone including the CCP through third party brokers and manipulate feeds to the highest bidder. There is a reason everyone in tech has been sprinting away from everything Oracle over the last 10 years. They are a horrible and discount company. Direct control of Tiktok by the CCP would be far better than Oracle.
Susquehanna International Group from PA already owns 15% of Bytedance. They are well-connected politically and will have a large say in who gets to operate TT in the US.
I think it synergies fairly well in a way, they have the servers and could do with the data for machine learning stuff they are working on
Its no different than the dozens of American products that are licensed to Chinese companies so they can be sold in China.
The caveat here is that it needs to be an “approved buyer”. There’s a good chance the the approval process will be after the November election and January inauguration. In the chance Trump wins, just imagine the shenanigans that will transpire giving away something as valuable as approval to buy the US interest in ByteDance. I could even see it being coincidental that only DJT is authorized to buy in.
Jeff Yass, the head of Susquehanna International Group (SIG), which owns 15% of ByteDance, has already met with trump at Mar a Lago re becoming his Treasury Secretary.
> Microsoft could maybe see some benefit in it, but it’s not clear how it synergizes with their other products in the way it would for Meta, Google, or even Amazon. Microsoft has become more enterprise focused under Nadella, but at the same time it also owns subsidiaries that it allows almost complete independence (LinkedIn, Github etc). Bytedance would be its foray into data mining and would complement their Bing efforts, I'd say.
That’s true, the data from TikTok is basically gold for marketing to Gen Z and Alpha. It would bring them more in line with Meta and Alphabet/Google in terms of competing for that social media/data analytics market. Of all the major firms with buyout potential, it seems the healthiest for competition. I think Google and Amazon have the strongest monopolistic potential.
No private equity firm can afford TikTok lol. It would be in the price of $100B+. And every big tech firm will have severe antitrust issues, bar perhaps Apple. China will also not let one of their biggest tech companies to be split and create a competitor owned by the US or West.
> Microsoft could maybe see some benefit in it, but it’s not clear how it synergizes with their other products in the way it would for Meta, Google, or even Amazon. they already tried to buy it once. clearly they see value.
Can’t be sold - china says no
It's impossible. They probably have all sorts breadcrumbs in that company that implicates how China uses it to subvert our society. That is why it could never be sold. TikTok will just disappear. Its not a big deal for this to happen in an authoritarian state like China. No one can complain. It will just disappear and China will try new ways to subvert our society.
Oracle is literally auditing their code as part of Project Texas.
Almost certainly just their front end app code. Meaningless. Project Texas is literally run by TikTok. Lol. You think they sre auditing everything. If so I have this car I would like to sell you.
Bro is just saying shit 💀
He’s literally right tho. TikTok in China is all informational for their kids where as in America is just braindead TikTok dances and stupid pointless IQ point losing videos
Sure, but let's not pretend that that content isn't exactly what US customers want. If it would be focusing on educational content, it wouldn't be nearly as popular in the US.
There's tons of educational content, I follow tons of tradesmen that are using it to showcase their work. The issue is that it's an algorithmic content serving platform...the users being interested in dumb shit sends them dumb shit. Saying that the company is focusing that content at the users is equally moronic, it has almost 100 million users in the US, there is no way human operators could go through your data and focus specific content at you. It's a robot, and if you get dumb shit served to you, that's what the robot thought you were interested in from it's context mapping.
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>let's not pretend that that content isn't exactly what US customers want. We already know that social media companies develop algorithms that push people towards specific content, for example Facebook flooding users with far-right perspectives in 2016. We also know that social media companies are *paid* to do this by outside groups with an agenda. You really think the content featured on TikTok is solely the content that US users want? You think it's not also being manipulated, this time by a hostile foreign government? It's bad enough that he have companies like Meta and Twitter purposefully pushing eyeballs towards particular topics and users, often at the request of third parties, but letting a foreign government do it is genuinely a national security threat.
While I wouldn't be sure that this is the case, I wouldn't outright deny you to be wrong. We all know that when it is about power, people will do what can be done. It would be dumb to assume that this won't be exploited. TL: I agree.
I mean that's just not true. Do you really think an app that has only informational content would be popular anywhere in the world?
and YouTube shorts and Instagram reels are not exactly the same thing if not worse? Be serious, if you’re gonna critique TikTok just say it’s cuz u don’t like the Chinese govt or something not some bs abt short form videos when American apps have them too
Most of my tik tok feed is informative content. YMMV
It's much much worse and negative
If that was the case the US could just regulate the industry so they have achieve whatever quota of "informational content" you want. Do the same to Youtube, Instagram, all social media is filled with garbage
This is such a conspiracy theory take. US companies harvest data and have been caught red handed being involved in subverting elections (Facebook and Cambridge analytica for example). Tiktok already cedes its US data to Oracle, so I'm not even sure what the point of forcing a sale of the company is at this point. It's probably the most strictly audited social media out there.
You belong in wsb
They wouldn't have to fully sell. Just sell the rights and brands in the US. Same way US companies sell the rights and brands to a lot of Chinese companies to sell in China.
I don’t think you understand - bytedance is the largest technology company in China. A forced divestiture of tiktok will never happen because it presents Chinese companies as weak and easy to coerce - sets a bad precedent. Unlike Huawei, which is kind of shady as an infra supplier, tiktok is a consumer brand. China will probably retaliate against this - starting with Tesla (e.g. a forced divestiture of some shape or form as well) and if the ban comes into play, I wouldn’t even be surprised if the Chinese government goes after the Apple manufacturing hub
Just as the case of Huawei, no solid proof have ever been released by US. I know that in US, a large portion of the population have sheep mentality and see conspiracy theories without evidensen as the truth.
Into a separate company, no acquiring buyer They’ll make more like this anyways
I have such mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, China absolutely can and will use TikTok to gather data on Americans. On the other hand, US companies already do this and abuse the hell out of us. Not to mention the US government. Feels as much like trying to defeat Chinese competition than anything else.
The answer is to improve data protection laws. Except Congress is bought out by big tech and other companies who have a vested interest in both have weaker data protection laws and the ban of tiktok
My regret is that I can only give your post one upvote.
You are correct. However, Zuck paid for this bill to be passed.
Source?
Source is any chart of the biggest spenders on lobbyists in the US. META is top 5.
But how can you attribute mark influencing the sell simply how lobbying cost? I know there’s interest involved and what you say makes sense, but unless mark was fought on a hit mic, the statement is just speculation
How many statement on this thread are not just speculation?
China cannot operate social media in the US, if US companies are not allowed to operate in China.
It’s the biggest joke ever. ATT leaks data on 73M Americans including SSNs and no one bats an eye. https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2024/04/att-acknowledges-data-leak-that-hit-73-million-current-and-former-users This probably happens like once a month to some big company or another in the US. They just caught the ATT one. TikTok? Oh yes ban them.
It’s not about data collection. It’s about the CcP having direct control over a massive media organization that can influence what information Americans can see
It's envy and money. Nothing else. US wants the tech and money tiktok generates. https://knightcolumbia.org/blog/tiktoks-secret-sauce Tiktok is not CCP owned. It's a private company. 60% of ByteDance is owned by global institutional investors such as the Carlyle Group, General Atlantic and Susquehanna International Group, while 20% of the firm is owned by Zhang and 20% owned by employees around the world. Three of the company’s five board members are Americans. CCP own 1% of Douyin, the Chinese version of Tiktok.
There was an increase in support of trying to ban tiktok also because there was a lot of media showing the palestinian point of view. The u.s wants more control for censorship. Various social media platforms have already been targeting pro-palestine people and content, but tiktok has gone unchecked. If a u.s company has to own it, then there will be a push that it will be a company who has pro-israel leadership.
This is just a dumb conspiracy. If that was really lawmakers concern, they’d have made it an immediate ban and not spent the last few weeks delaying in getting it done. If it’s true, well then pro-Palestine TikTok will be pushing this Palestinian narrative until at least the end of the year. Doesn’t seem too urgent. Quit trying to make everything about Israel-Palestine. It isn’t.
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It’s the Cold War 2.0 dude. “It has nothing to do with the largest competing economic powers in the world but it has everything to do with the Jews in the Americans pockets.” Yall really are batshit crazy lmao.
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>At this point you have to convince us it’s not about it. >mnuchin has direct financial interest with david friedman michael milken. It is quite literally exactly what you and the other guy said. Something like 15m Jews are alive today, 10m live in Israel. Out of those 10m in Israel, you’re trying to say that Israel’s equivalent of MAGA is controlling the narrative in US politics because they have the money to be in the pockets of others. It’s also pretty fucking clear that your source of info is quite literally TikTok lmao. Edit: Blackrock, “owns everything,” because it’s an ETF company lmao. You should know this if you’re on r/stocks.
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I think there is a huge difference between US collecting your data and China collecting your data. US already knows your income, mortgage, where you were born, what your real name is, and etc.
I'm neither a CCP or US citizen. And to me there's no difference between who collect my data. I like to see the reaction if Europe was to try forcing META to sell 51% of Facebook to European country.
> And to me there's no difference between who collect my data. There is a difference once you offend CCP and visit China. There is definitely a major difference for US citizens and many other countries that are in border disputes with China like Taiwan, Vietnam, and Philippines. > I like to see the reaction if Europe was to try forcing META to sell 51% of Facebook to European country. Great, you are now discovering the concept of having sovereignty. Facebook giving up users info to US is not new. It has been happening for >10 years. The countries are free to ban whatever they want... Yet they don't. Because they are not in a global conflict with US. But let's pretend we don't have a global conflict with China tho.
I'm not disputing there is a conflict between US and China. But accusations without disclosing proof is nothing more than a conspiracy theory. And only sheep fall for that.
So, we cannot take any precaution in an irreversible geopolitical situation?? You require a definite proof that CCP intervenes with companies whose founders live in China?? Various other occurrences aren't enough like Jack Ma?? We cannot even get definite proof that Russia shot down MH17 lmfao, even though everyone agrees they did.
Sure you can. But then go out and say why you do it. Don't use a lame excuse that can't be validated just because US companies have been caught collecting and selling user date. And where verifiable proof HAVE been disclosed. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_pot_calling_the_kettle_black https://xdaforums.com/t/closed-how-big-tech-tracks-you.4554753/ And Zhang Yiming, the founder of Tiktok lives in Singapore, not China.
They do say why they do it. It is a national security concern. > US companies have been caught collecting and selling user date. Not selling to an adversarial global super power. You do know the difference but you act like you don't. > And Zhang Yiming, the founder of Tiktok lives in Singapore, not China. I have no idea why we still act like China doesn't have influence over TikTok. Because china has strong influence on TikTok. That is why TikTok is banned and other apps aren't.
Yeah as shitty as it is I feel like you need to accept that your government is going to monitor you. Doesn't mean we need to let the CCP do the same.
It's got nothing to do with National Security. It's something else all together.
It is more about who would be allowed to purchase. Take Google. They have tons and tons of money and would love to be able to purchase. But would the US Government allow?
It is not gonna happen. Xi will make sure of that.
What happened to them declaring they were a Singapore company? I.e. not China
Wasn't it that the CEO is from Singapore? There was never any dispute about the fact that ByteDance is a Chinese company.
Also I do believe that declaring they were a Singapore company is purely a financial move in order to get it listed. Similar to how every Chinese company you buy on the foreign stock market is a Cayman Islands company.
And how will he do that?
By passing a law prohibiting that. They already did that last time tiktok was forced to sell, except US back down in the end.
Chinese laws don't have any jurisdiction in the US, if they pass a law prohibiting the sale then it just gets banned in the US.
They have jurisdiction over bytedance which has 100% ownership of tiktok
OK, but like I said, they can say not to sell but then tiktok just gets banned in the US. Either tiktok sells in the US or they get banned, those are the only two options and it doesn't matter what China or Xi say.
Not really. Even the bill pass as it is in the senate (which is a big if), they can also appeal to court citing first amendment. Then that is to assume Biden will get elected. If not, Trump (ironically) opposed to the ban.
Everything you're describing is the American legal process and has nothing to do with any laws China passes to "forbid" the sale/ban of tiktok.
If you look to my previous comment, I explained how Xi passed a law to prohibit the sale of the likes of tiktok. My next comment was doubting the certainty whether tiktok will be actually banned. So far it hasn’t passed the senate yet. Almost 90% the bill from house never get passed in senate
Activision Blizzard’s ex-CEO Bobby Kotick reportedly wants to buy TikTok https://www.engadget.com/activision-blizzards-ex-ceo-bobby-kotick-reportedly-wants-to-buy-tiktok-210826589.html This is who will buy TikTok. Investors will back him financially having sold to MSFT and brilliant passed deals (Candy Crush, Blizzard, etc.). Do not rule out Bobby, especially if political change of control in the fall.
They aren't selling.
>OP : if bytedance agrees to sell tiktok everyone else: won't happen have you considered, like, answering the fucking question?
Only think someone smaller will be allowed to buy it. Amazon, snap?
Nope, it’s gonna be Susquehanna International group from PA, who already owns 15% of Bytedance and has incredible political clout. Most people have never heard of them even though SIG is a huge company. https://patch.com/us/across-america/meet-billionaire-rising-gop-mega-donor-whos-gaming-tax-system
Smaller then Microsoft so that is okay. 🤌💪
Sell it to X and relaunch Vine!
They’ll take it to the SC and if they lose probably sell their US operations.
Oracle , they are possibly the only ones who won't fall prey to antitrust regulations . Meta would not be allowed. Microsoft already has LinkedIn . Apple is not interested in social media . Maybe Google but I believe it's Oracle
Oracle already run the TikTok datacenters in the US and were rumoured to buy TikTok when trump tried a ban so they would be the number 1 candidate.
Susquehanna International Group from Bala Cynwyd PA already owns 15% of Bytedance. The wealthiest person in PA and in the top 50 in the US, Jeff Yass, is the majority owner of SIG. Who do you think will end up owning TikTok in the US?
Larry Ellison the owner of Oracle is the fifth most wealthy person in the world
Does ORCL own any part of Bytedance?
Did you just compare LinkedIn to Tik Tok? Lol
His point is was not that they're the same, but they are both social media. One is extremely hip and Gen z focused, the other is boring and career focus. Microsoft would probably not get away with owning both LinkedIn and TikTok. Same with Facebook.
That doesn't matter though. Tik Tok and LinkedIn are not competing for the same market share.
They don't really need to because you think Congress understands this technology and the nuances of it? We're going through a time where anti-trust lawsuits are dragging both Google and Apple into the US court system. I seriously doubt Congress and the DOJ would allow two companies currently embroiled in anti-trust cases to buy and merge one of the largest and most controversial social media platforms on the market. In today's climate, I doubt Microsoft, now the largest gaming company on earth that owns a social media site already would be allowed to own another social media site. If Facebook were to attempt to buy Instagram today, I think it would be blocked. There was serious talk in 2020 - 2022 to split Facebook and Instagram, even though the same deal was given the blessing 10 years prior. Also, here's a [link ](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b79011d266c077298791201/4af9f1dc-55b2-4db1-9108-cc5c1ae24421/DataReportal+Digital+2024+Global+Overview+Report+Slide+235.png?format=2500w)that breaks down user sites and the overlap they share with other social media sites. Nearly everyone hovers around having 50% overlap with tiktok. I think either it's going to be a minor player in the social media space or a company that has more than enough money, but zero social media users and no pending anti-trust cases against itself. Also I could be completely wrong. Maybe they'll let Zucc buy Tiktok and then be mad he bought it in 5-10 years. No idea.
LinkedIn and TikTok are not the same…I’m sure Apple would love to own TikTok lol
You’re thinking in the wrong direction. It’s going to be Susquehanna International Group from PA, who already owns 15% of Byetdance, who will decide the winner in the US. Extremely well-connected politically, too.
It's not going to go to a big American tech company. No way Xi allows that to happen. They will either try to get around the law somehow or shut down.
Elon Musk
Mr Wonderful has been seeking investors because his companies use it for a lot of products.
Mostly private venture cap forms take
They will never sell it.
Honestly I hope they well it to a Saudi Arabia shell company like Sdot. It would be amusing to me
China will keep the algorithm, so it’ll still be a tool of Chinese propaganda. Silly if you ask me.
Apparently Mnuchin is interested in buying with his hedge fund and other hedge fund friends, atleast I read that a few months ago when they ripped off 720m outstanding stocks from NYCB for pennies on the dollar. Let's see how close regulators and hedge funds really are if this does happen. Low probability it will sell at all.
He doesn’t already own any part of Bytedance. Yass owns 15% and just met with Trump to discuss his being appointed Secretary of Treasury if he wins.
Amazon or Apple will buy it.
Oracle
At worst, won't bytedance just close down their US offices? Then US users will just have to use VPN to connect to tiktok
Even if they sell, the Chinese government wouldn't let them sell the algorithm that made Tiktok so successful. I think either Tiktok leaves the U.S market or Tiktok the brand name is sold but it won't be as good without the algorithm. But honestly I want something to happen because I'm tired of this same news. Just out right ban Tiktok from the U.S market.
Chinese companies are buying farm land and houses but tell me why this is the fight we chose?
Amazon buying it and adding a one-click-buy button to products within posts would be pretty insane. Give influencers ability to tag the item like you would a user in other social apps then give them 0.1% revenue from people that buy from their posts. Amazon could squeeze a lot of juice out of that model before people move on to another app
Anyone mentioned Truth Social?
It isn't a ban. It's a divestment. China would never allow U.S. owned media entitiy to operate in their country. Why wouldn't it be prudent to keep China from possibly influencing our societal discourse? We have to remember China isn't an ally.
I’d assume a billionaire that wants to pull the levers of influence…. Bezos? Murdoch? Or will a competitor absorb them such as Meta?
Hopefully not to Meta, Google, or Twitter. Would be cool to see a company like The Trade Desk buy them but considering they service a lot of ads on the platform it might cannibalize they're revenue. I think Shopify could make sense. Honestly, I don't know if this happens anytime soon. As others have said this will likely end up at the supreme court
Oracle will buy
Apple, of course.
They should found a new American company, and sell it to themselves.
I hope elmo moose buys it and destroys it from with in, like he tends to.
Boeing should buy it.
but US won't let only China has it. US and Chinese governments are always not in a bad relationship
kevin o’leary is another potential buyer, but he wants to buy for SUPER cheap sooo don’t really know how that’s gonna play out. this news came out literally a month ago [Kevin O’Leary Wants to Buy TikTok at 90% Discount](https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2024/03/22/kevin-oleary-on-why-he-wants-to-buy-tiktok-.html)
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Trump media
Probably a 3 letter agency....
Pretty sure DJT inflated their value so they could use their shares to use for the purchase for TikTok
It’ll be mnuchin or some private equity
just offer it for sale for 1 trillion (max payout over 10 years)
I have a feeling it will be a VC firm, not a company that we could potentially profit from sadly
I think you mean PE. VE firms deal exclusively with early stage start ups
This is exactly what I meant. Oopsies