America threatens to ban or seize TikTok

[Celerity]

TikTok’s Chinese parent is scrambling to hang on to its hit app. America threatens to ban ByteDance’s most valuable digital property—or seize it

https://www.economist.com/business/2020/07/25/tiktoks-chinese-parent-is-scrambling-to-hang-on-to-its-hit-app



In may bytedance, the world’s most valuable startup, leapt further ahead of other technology “unicorns”. It was valued at $140bn on the secondary market, up by nearly half from a funding round in the spring. The reason? TikTok, a short-video app that has been downloaded 2bn times. The “last sunny corner” of the internet, as it is known thanks to jolly user-generated content, is China’s first worldwide internet sensation. For ByteDance’s 37-year-old founder, Zhang Yiming, it is part of an ambition to build a global software giant.

Now that ambition is in jeopardy. On June 29th India banned TikTok and 58 other Chinese apps, after deadly clashes between Indian and Chinese soldiers in the Himalayas. The same month ByteDance’s American lawyers told it that President Donald Trump’s administration has concerns over TikTok’s Chinese ownership. America is now threatening to ban the app altogether.

Official unease about TikTok has risen with its popularity. It has an estimated 70m American users, in the same league as Snapchat. In the first quarter it was downloaded 315m times globally, more than any app ever in three months, according to Sensor Tower, a research firm (see chart 1). In America and Britain it rivals YouTube for user attention—and not just among teenagers, who first took to it. “TikTok is a place for everyone now,” says Vanessa Pappas, the app’s general manager for America.



ByteDance keeps its numbers close to its chest but its investors say it is on track to bring in $30bn of revenue in 2020, up from $15bn-20bn in 2019. Net profit could more than double, to $7bn. Most of that comes from its Chinese businesses, Douyin, a version of TikTok, and Toutiao, a news app. TikTok is not yet making money, but ByteDance reckons it may in time eclipse all its Chinese properties put together, by tapping into America’s vast ad market. It has been rolling out tools to advertisers. ByteDance’s mainly American venture-capital backers believe this, plus growth in China, could lift its valuation to $500bn.

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[onethatcares]

1. ahh, children, rise up, you know

that you know more about the interwebs than the stooges in the oval office. You already beat that guy down, and you did it without violence.

I have faith in the goodness of the young. You can't teach them to share and accept diversity and then tell them they are wrong for believing in it.

We will see great things come out of them. I have that feeling.

[Thekaspervote]

2. Dotard to ban tictok...revenge from the hateful bastard over Sarah Cooper

[customerserviceguy]

3. TikTok's logo hurts my eyes

Are you supposed to look at it with 3-D glasses from movies from the 1950's?

[SlogginThroughIt]

4. By all means please motivate the youth

[crickets]

5. Oh, someone's poking a bear called KPop. Unwise. They already owned trump before. nt