https://time.com/6952889/tiktok-ban-freedom-of-speech-essay/
It’s not actually hard to imagine US banning Tiktok. They have been trying it for a few years and they are likely to get it done eventually. It’s harder to tell if it is just against China, or anything that is “not invented here” for Americans. But then again, Spotify was okay, not invented in US, and still loved by Americans and allowed to be Apple beating in courts. Similar deal with American Steel case recently with a Japanese takeover deal, not the first time these business deals are played by “national” (union) interests in an election year.
But this time it can be different. Tiktok is well loved by young Americans, 170m of them, might not be as politically influential as strong unions, but they are more engaged. And it’s not that easy for YouTube, Facebook, X or Snapchat to take over; they chose to use the app regularly clearly knowing that it has a Chinese background, but they are smart enough to know that Tiktok isn’t capturing any more data about them than Apple, Google, Facebook and other platforms. And it’s easy to spin it as youngsters are “communicating” via Tiktok, implying that they can easy chat to each other and gang up on the government, but that’s not how it is being used. They are just creating content and letting the app do its magic to help to get discovered by whoever likes it.
But regardless, Tiktok will be fine without US market. It will be tough, but they Tiktok will survive. Just as US ban didn’t kill Huawei, made it stronger. We already forgot that’s why top Chinese tech/growth stocks moved back to HK a few years ago.
https://backlinko.com/tiktok-users
https://www.linearity.io/blog/tiktok-statistics/
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