They should ask for Hawaii in return or something.
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Amazon Makes Last Minute Offer for TikTok as Ban Looms
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If ByteDance sells, presumably the Bureau of Competition of the Federal Trade Commission and the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice would have to approve of the buyer.
Well that doesn't sound Chinese at all. May aswell be called Xijinpingstagram
It's a name that Americans made up only because they couldn't pronounce 小红书. The owner of the app doesn't want outside users.
GAH! Why is this even still going on?! Ban it or sell it, but jeez, let's move on!
I’m not a fan of TikTok, but is this the world we’re living in. Where one guy gets to decide it all?
I've seen it benefit many people.
Most recently, that dude who gives people free landscaping did so for this old woman in a dilapidated house, and viewers were so moved by her warm personality that they contributed hundreds of thousands of (maybe a million?) dollars toward her to improve her living condition.
I also saw a tearful thank you to the TikTok community by an unknown author who was seen on someone else's TikTok alone at his book store book-signing booth with nobody approaching him. That video went viral and the book immediately became an Amazon Best Seller.
I've seen countless occurrences like this on TikTok. It can be super enriching and business/community-building. I would be very sad to see it go.
Funny thing is, he's not even the decision maker. His regime keeps making these one-sided announcements about potential deals when it's not even for sale due to export controls. Nobody is dumb enough to trade actual algorithm and a multi-billion dollar playbook for some random promises of tariff relief. It's literally just saliva.
I think ByteDance may agree to a deal where all operations and content moderation of TikTok are done outside of China, maybe with moderators based in the USA and Europe. It could certainly have its operations all in the USA, especially given the massive amount of data server capacity available here.
LOL Freedom has been reduced to what fits to "our" needs or does not oppose "our" interests.....
BossUp Cosmetics. She started the business when she was 14, but it didn't blow up until 2023 when she was 19 thanks to.... TikTok!
A 20-year-old founder's color changing lip oil is blowing up TikTok
The up-and-coming BossUp brand draws inspiration from the likes of Rihanna and Selena Gomez
Aaliyah Arnold, founder and CEO of BossUp Cosmetics, hopes she will see her brand of lipsticks and eyeshadows on the shelves of Sephora and Ulta Beauty. BossUp is the 20 year-old’s second company, and right now it is riding high thanks to its color-changing lip oil—which claims to look different on every person depending on their pH—that has gone viral on TikTok, helping it sell over 500,000 units.
BossUp, an indie brand especially popular with women of color, currently offers over 100 products including blushes, body lotions, and masks. The Houston startup employs about 10 people; all are Arnold’s family members, including her mom, who handles the company’s finances.
[ . . . ]
This year through August, sales of high-end lip oils in the U.S. grew 59% to $115.5 million compared to 2023, according to Circana. That’s up from less than $18 million in 2021. Elf Cosmetics in August said that robust demand for its Glow Reviver Lip Oil, which costs $8, helped boost revenue by 50%, Bloomberg reported.
[ . . . ]
Arnold introduced BossUp’s color-changing lip oil as part of a Valentine’s Day collection of glosses in February 2023. She then offered the lip oil separately and it sold out within minutes. But real success didn’t come until BossUp launched the lip oil on TikTok Shop last summer.
TikTok typically limits small corporate sellers to 200 products a day, so they won’t oversell. The limit helped BossUp because Arnold could publicize that the lip oil was selling out by 8 a.m. She would advise potential customers to buy in the early morning and “get one quick before they sell out again,” according to an October 2023 TikTok that has received about 9 million views.
The lip oil remains BossUp’s top-selling product, followed by Boss Balm, her black color-changing lip and cheek balm, which has sold more than 50,000 units and costs $8.99. TikTok does get a slice, “not a big percent,” of BossUp’s orders, she said. (BossUp products are only sold on TikTok Shop and the company’s website.)
The whole point of TikTok being so valuable is it's AI. There's a really good algorithm. Nobody is reviewing the 30 million videos that are uploaded to the platform every day.
The U.S. law says TikTok must sell the super valuable algo, which would never happen.
Straight to the comments to Michael Scott No Please God NOOO!
If Amazon buys them, Amazon.com will be getting even worse with videos and ads and pushing me to remember TikTok exists when I do not want to remember that.
If Amazon buys them, Amazon.com will be getting even worse with videos and ads and pushing me to remember TikTok exists when I do not want to remember that.
I keep forgetting that, but if in fact the US law does say the algorithm must go with it (I'm taking your word for it and not bothering to check for myself), then I don't see what the point of any of this is.
If the point was just to give hosting dollars to Trump's buddy Ellison, then that's not going to solve anything. Even if everything was hosted entirely in the US, they'd just do it like Apple did iCloud in China until they were forced to hand over the encryption keys.
And even then, as you say, the algorithm is the secret sauce. And if China refuses to allow that to be sold, then it seems we are at an impasse and the only option is either to enforce or repeal the law. And then to sue Apple and Google and Oracle and Akamai for like 500 trillion dollars in back fines.
There is no good solution, especially with the way the law is written. The easiest solution is to ask Justice Dept. to ignore enforcing the law, which is what's happening right now.
The U.S. needs TikTok more than TikTok needs the U.S. We've already seen this with ByteDance accepting the ban.
Trump team has weighed deal to save TikTok that would leave algorithm in Chinese ownership
The White House has examined a menu of options to avert a TikTok ban deadline set for Saturday. One proposal — letting TikTok’s Chinese owner lease the algorithm to a TikTok spinoff in the U.S. — would probably face resistance from China hawks in Trump’s party.
www.washingtonpost.com
TikTok is like fire. It can do a lot of good for a lot of people, but it can also burn your house down if you're not careful. Be careful out there people.
100% of TikTok in the U.S. already goes through Oracle.
Delivering on our US data governance - Newsroom | TikTok
TikTok is the world's leading destination for short-form mobile videos. Our mission is to capture and present the world's creativity, knowledge, and moments that matter in everyday life. TikTok empowers everyone to be a creator directly from their smartphones, and is committed to building a...
newsroom.tiktok.com
For more than a year, we've been working with Oracle on several measures as part of our commercial relationship to better safeguard our app, systems, and the security of US user data. We've now reached a significant milestone in that work: we've changed the default storage location of US user data. Today, 100% of US user traffic is being routed to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. We still use our US and Singapore data centers for backup, but as we continue our work we expect to delete US users' private data from our own data centers and fully pivot to Oracle cloud servers located in the US.
Oracle audits their systems to make sure data is secure.
TikTok Facts: How we secure personal information and store data - Newsroom | TikTok
TikTok is the world's leading destination for short-form mobile videos. Our mission is to capture and present the world's creativity, knowledge, and moments that matter in everyday life. TikTok empowers everyone to be a creator directly from their smartphones, and is committed to building a...
newsroom.tiktok.com
As of July 2022, all new U.S. user data is stored automatically in Oracle's U.S. Cloud infrastructure, and access is managed exclusively by the TikTok US Data Security team. USDS is dedicated to making every U.S. user on TikTok feel safe and confident their data is secure and that the platform is free from outside influence. To help ensure that there is no unauthorized access to our systems, such as no "backdoors" or data leakage, Oracle and a third-party source code inspector will work to ensure that everything is performing as intended.
This is completely different to how Apple operates in China where Apple's datacenters are operated/controlled by China.
I agree that it will not be sold. It was reported that TikTok is just a tiny percentage of ByteDance.
- post #1 by MacRumors :
As of January 19, the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act that bans TikTok from operating in the U.S. under Chinese control has been in effect, but U.S. President Donald Trump gave TikTok a reprieve by ordering the Department of Justice to not enforce the law for a 75-day period. That window is set to expire on Saturday, April 5, and a sale of TikTok's U.S. operations must be arranged by that time or the app will be shut down again.
- NY Times story cited by MacRumors in post #1 :
Amazon has put in a last-minute bid to acquire all of TikTok, the popular video app, as it approaches an April deadline to be separated from its Chinese owner or face a ban in the United States, according to three people familiar with the bid.
Various parties who have been involved in the talks do not appear to be taking Amazon’s bid seriously, the people said. The bid came via an offer letter addressed to Vice President JD Vance and Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, according to a person briefed on the matter.
Amazon’s bid highlights the 11th-hour maneuvering in Washington over TikTok’s ownership. Policymakers in both parties have expressed deep national security concerns over the app’s Chinese ownership, and passed a law last year to force a sale of TikTok that was set to take effect in January.
President Trump, who has pledged repeatedly to save the app despite the national security concerns, delayed the enforcement of that law until Saturday, even after it was unanimously upheld by the Supreme Court.
if it were mine I wouldnt sell it. And would say “if US see as a threat then block it”..
And if I were China govnmnt would forbid selling such a big business to foreigners
Quite simple..
Not for me to be honest, I don't bother with social media, have a Facebook account and that is about it and that is not even on my phone these days.
The U.s really have a problem with the Chinese, but to be honest, the way things are going in the U.S, I am starting to trust the Chinese more. At least you know where you are with them.
Up to people if they want to use it. From what I have heard about it, it seems to be full of junk, just like any other social media.
The U.s really have a problem with the Chinese, but to be honest, the way things are going in the U.S, I am starting to trust the Chinese more. At least you know where you are with them.
Up to people if they want to use it. From what I have heard about it, it seems to be full of junk, just like any other social media.