The summer has been eventful for ByteDance, the owner of the rapidly growing social network TikTok<\/a>. First, GoI banned the application from distribution in the country due to concerns that the Chinese government is accessing user data. Then, a number of US companies<\/a> warned employees to remove TikTok from their work phones. Most recently, US President Donald J Trump<\/a> threatened to ban TikTok in the US.
Into this maelstrom has stepped Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella with an offer to purchase the US business of TikTok. Nadella has earned a reputation as a savvy operator. He has restored Microsoft’s growth with smart bets on various types of business software, and a strong push to move the users of various applications, including the company's lucrative Office products on to the online Office 365<\/a> version. Nadella has also remade the image of the swaggering giant as a kinder, gentler, more thoughtful company.
Microsoft’s purchase of TikTok would be Nadella’s riskiest bet to date. If Beijing, in fact, views TikTok as a crucial asset for influencing US political and social discourse, it could attempt to put backdoors into the software and service. Microsoft would need to work hard to extricate them, and they could result in TikTok’s being shut down anyway.
Also, with TikTok, Microsoft would enter the politically fraught world of social-content moderation. Microsoft has assiduously avoided political controversy, but TikTok would inevitably force Nadella to enter that arena in one way or another. For example, critics have loudly complained that TikTok censored videos of recent Hong Kong protests, citing that as evidence of Chinese government control. One can imagine similar discontent, due to slights — real or perceived — arising among any number of causes, particularly at either extreme of the US political spectrum.
Value for Money?<\/strong>
TikTok’s present valuation of $5 billion has critics warning that Microsoft is about to overpay. That is one of many things that could halt the deal altogether — valuation, government intervention and fresh revelations of spying on users, being just a few.
Yet the logic of the acquisition is clear. TikTok is under threat of closure by the US federal government. It’s hard to imagine that Microsoft will pay its full valuation price. For ByteDance, this may offer a graceful exit from a business that it realises will only create more problems. So, Nadella may be making a smart bet — one with less to lose and more to gain than others realise.
Microsoft would increase its market presence by simultaneously acquiring both a social medium and an application popular with the younger crowd. It has long pined for more of the under-25 group, and TikTok may fulfil that aspiration most clearly and cleanly. Also, TikTok, a kinder, gentler social network than Facebook<\/a> and Twitter<\/a>, aligns culturally with Microsoft’s carefully groomed image.
The platform is designed to encourage discovery and consumption, but not to fan the flames of extremism. That does entail algorithmically controlling content more carefully and spreading new content more slowly than Facebook and Twitter care to. To date, however, moderation has been a lesser problem on TikTok than on other platforms and, due to its design and mechanism, is likely to remain so.
Content-Rich<\/strong>
With TikTok would come a large and growing pool of user-generated video data for training Microsoft’s artificial-intelligence engines. In theory, if Microsoft can continue to grow TikTok’s user base, its advertising benefits may be enormous. Microsoft’s cash flow would benefit by the added diversity of the advertising revenue and potentially of another rapidly growing source: social advertising. To put this into perspective, Amazon’s fastest growing revenue stream, of late, has been advertising sales on its powerful ecommerce platform.
The purchase’s major benefit to Microsoft and the US public may be the ability of consumers to continue to use an innovative platform for free expression and creativity after rescuing it from the quicksand of politics. Yes, we must remain vigilant in limiting government spying (which, let’s be honest, both sides engage in) and restrictive business practices (in which China is clearly the worst offender). But ultimately the potential of such a technology as TikTok is to soar above partisanship and divisiveness to let people connect and create.
Certainly, social networks have created their fair share of problems for society, and TikTok is not a perfect vessel. People will find ways to abuse its potential. For now, however, Microsoft’s purchase of TikTok would, in a rare win-win, benefit Microsoft, TikTok’s users, and society.
And just as the US learned from India’s ban, India now needs to learn from it. China’s National Intelligence Law of 2017 requires all of its companies and citizens to ‘support, assist and cooperate with the state intelligence work’. If China decided to launch more aggressive moves against India, it could have its companies intercept private communications, shut down key services, or even sabotage infrastructure. This is why the US State Department launched the Clean Network program: to purge Chinese companies from US infrastructure. This applies to telecom carriers, cloud services, undersea cables, apps and app stores.
Removing Chinese-developed infrastructure will take time. But India can surely take a page out of the US State Department’s book and require companies such as Xiaomi<\/a>, Haier, Oppo, Vivo, Oneplus, Huawei<\/a> and Motorola to sell their Indian products to local players. Companies such as Reliance, Mahindra and Tata have the capability and funding, and could win in the same way as Microsoft.
(The writer is distinguished fellow, Labour and Worklife Program, Harvard Law School, US, and co-author of the forthcoming book, From Incremental to Exponential: How Large Companies Can See the Future and Rethink Innovation.)<\/em>
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的Vivek Wadhwa
夏天已经ByteDance多事的,快速增长的社交网络的所有者TikTok。首先,GoI禁止应用程序分布在这个国家由于担心中国政府访问用户数据。然后,很多美国公司警告员工把TikTok从他们的工作电话。最近,美国总统J唐纳德特朗普在美国禁止TikTok威胁。
走进了这一漩涡与出价购买微软CEO萨提亚Nadella TikTok的美国业务。作为一个精明的经营者Nadella已经赢得了声誉。他已经恢复了微软的增长与智能押注各种类型的商业软件,和强大的推动移动用户的各种应用程序,包括该公司的利润丰厚的办公产品在线Office 365的版本。Nadella也重塑巨头的形象作为一个仁慈,更温柔、更体贴的公司。
微软的收购TikTok将Nadella风险最高的打赌。事实上,如果中国政府观点TikTok作为重要资产影响美国政治和社会话语,它可能试图把后门软件和服务。微软需要努力解救他们,他们可能导致TikTok被关闭。
与TikTok,微软将进入社会内容适度的政治危机四伏。微软已经刻意避开政治上的争议,但TikTok必然会迫使Nadella进入竞技场以这样或那样的方式。例如,批评人士大声抱怨TikTok审查的视频最近香港抗议,称,随着中国政府控制的证据。你可以想象类似的不满,由于怠慢中产生的——真实的或者所感知到的任意数量的原因,特别是在美国政治派别的极端。
物有所值吗?
TikTok目前的估值50亿美元的批评人士警告称,微软出价过高。是很多东西可以完全停止交易估值,监视用户的政府干预和新鲜的启示,只有几个。
然而,收购的逻辑很清楚。TikTok正面临被关闭的威胁,美国联邦政府。很难想象,微软将支付其全部价值的价格。对于ByteDance,这可能提供了一个优雅的退出业务,它意识到只会产生更多的问题。所以,Nadella可能会让一个聪明的选择——一个用更少的失去,比其他人更获得实现。
微软将增加其市场份额,同时获得社会媒介和应用程序受年轻人群的欢迎。长期以来渴望更多的25岁以下组,和TikTok可能实现愿望最清晰和干净。TikTok,更友善、更温和的社交网络脸谱网和推特与微软的精心培养,将文化形象。
平台旨在鼓励发现和消费,而不是风扇的火焰极端主义。这确实需要通过算法控制内容更加仔细和传播新内容更慢比Facebook和Twitter。然而,迄今为止,适度一直TikTok比其它平台上的一个小问题,由于它的设计和机制,很可能会继续。
内容丰富
与TikTok会来一个庞大且不断增长的用户生成的视频数据池培训微软的人工智能引擎。理论上,如果微软可以继续TikTok增长的用户群,其广告的好处可能是巨大的。微软的现金流将有利于增加多样性的另一个快速增长的广告收入和潜在来源:社会广告。理智的看待这个问题,亚马逊增长最快的收入流,后期的广告销售在其强大的电子商务平台。
购买微软和美国公众的主要好处可能是消费者的能力继续使用一个自由表达和创造力的创新平台后拯救它从政治的流沙。是的,我们必须保持警惕在限制政府间谍(老实说,双方参与)和限制性商业行为(中国显然是最严重的罪犯)。但最终的潜力等技术TikTok飙升高于党派之争和分歧让人们联系和创造。
当然,社交网络对社会创造了他们的问题,TikTok并不是一个完美的船。人们会找到方法来滥用其潜力。然而目前,微软的收购TikTok,在一个罕见的双赢,微软受益,TikTok用户和社会。
正如美国从印度的禁令,印度现在需要从中吸取教训。2017年中国国家情报法律要求所有的企业和公民的支持、帮助和配合国家情报工作’。如果中国决定对印度发动更为积极的行动,它可以拦截私人通讯公司,主要服务关闭,甚至破坏的基础设施。这就是为什么美国国务院推出清洁网络程序:清除中国公司从美国基础设施。这适用于电信运营商、云服务,海底电缆,应用程序和应用程序商店。
去除中国基础设施需要时间。但是印度一定能把一个页面从美国国务院的书,需要等公司小米Oneplus海尔,相对应的人体内,华为和摩托罗拉印度产品出售给当地的球员。等公司的依赖,马辛德拉和塔塔有能力和资金,并在微软一样能赢。
(作者是著名的家伙,劳动和职业生涯计划,哈佛法学院,我们,和即将出版的书的作者之一,从增量到指数:大公司可以看到未来,思考如何创新。)
夏天已经ByteDance多事的,快速增长的社交网络的所有者TikTok。首先,GoI禁止应用程序分布在这个国家由于担心中国政府访问用户数据。然后,很多美国公司警告员工把TikTok从他们的工作电话。最近,美国总统J唐纳德特朗普在美国禁止TikTok威胁。
走进了这一漩涡与出价购买微软CEO萨提亚Nadella TikTok的美国业务。作为一个精明的经营者Nadella已经赢得了声誉。他已经恢复了微软的增长与智能押注各种类型的商业软件,和强大的推动移动用户的各种应用程序,包括该公司的利润丰厚的办公产品在线Office 365的版本。Nadella也重塑巨头的形象作为一个仁慈,更温柔、更体贴的公司。
微软的收购TikTok将Nadella风险最高的打赌。事实上,如果中国政府观点TikTok作为重要资产影响美国政治和社会话语,它可能试图把后门软件和服务。微软需要努力解救他们,他们可能导致TikTok被关闭。
与TikTok,微软将进入社会内容适度的政治危机四伏。微软已经刻意避开政治上的争议,但TikTok必然会迫使Nadella进入竞技场以这样或那样的方式。例如,批评人士大声抱怨TikTok审查的视频最近香港抗议,称,随着中国政府控制的证据。你可以想象类似的不满,由于怠慢中产生的——真实的或者所感知到的任意数量的原因,特别是在美国政治派别的极端。
物有所值吗?
TikTok目前的估值50亿美元的批评人士警告称,微软出价过高。是很多东西可以完全停止交易估值,监视用户的政府干预和新鲜的启示,只有几个。
然而,收购的逻辑很清楚。TikTok正面临被关闭的威胁,美国联邦政府。很难想象,微软将支付其全部价值的价格。对于ByteDance,这可能提供了一个优雅的退出业务,它意识到只会产生更多的问题。所以,Nadella可能会让一个聪明的选择——一个用更少的失去,比其他人更获得实现。
微软将增加其市场份额,同时获得社会媒介和应用程序受年轻人群的欢迎。长期以来渴望更多的25岁以下组,和TikTok可能实现愿望最清晰和干净。TikTok,更友善、更温和的社交网络脸谱网和推特与微软的精心培养,将文化形象。
平台旨在鼓励发现和消费,而不是风扇的火焰极端主义。这确实需要通过算法控制内容更加仔细和传播新内容更慢比Facebook和Twitter。然而,迄今为止,适度一直TikTok比其它平台上的一个小问题,由于它的设计和机制,很可能会继续。
内容丰富
与TikTok会来一个庞大且不断增长的用户生成的视频数据池培训微软的人工智能引擎。理论上,如果微软可以继续TikTok增长的用户群,其广告的好处可能是巨大的。微软的现金流将有利于增加多样性的另一个快速增长的广告收入和潜在来源:社会广告。理智的看待这个问题,亚马逊增长最快的收入流,后期的广告销售在其强大的电子商务平台。
购买微软和美国公众的主要好处可能是消费者的能力继续使用一个自由表达和创造力的创新平台后拯救它从政治的流沙。是的,我们必须保持警惕在限制政府间谍(老实说,双方参与)和限制性商业行为(中国显然是最严重的罪犯)。但最终的潜力等技术TikTok飙升高于党派之争和分歧让人们联系和创造。
当然,社交网络对社会创造了他们的问题,TikTok并不是一个完美的船。人们会找到方法来滥用其潜力。然而目前,微软的收购TikTok,在一个罕见的双赢,微软受益,TikTok用户和社会。
正如美国从印度的禁令,印度现在需要从中吸取教训。2017年中国国家情报法律要求所有的企业和公民的支持、帮助和配合国家情报工作’。如果中国决定对印度发动更为积极的行动,它可以拦截私人通讯公司,主要服务关闭,甚至破坏的基础设施。这就是为什么美国国务院推出清洁网络程序:清除中国公司从美国基础设施。这适用于电信运营商、云服务,海底电缆,应用程序和应用程序商店。
去除中国基础设施需要时间。但是印度一定能把一个页面从美国国务院的书,需要等公司小米Oneplus海尔,相对应的人体内,华为和摩托罗拉印度产品出售给当地的球员。等公司的依赖,马辛德拉和塔塔有能力和资金,并在微软一样能赢。
(作者是著名的家伙,劳动和职业生涯计划,哈佛法学院,我们,和即将出版的书的作者之一,从增量到指数:大公司可以看到未来,思考如何创新。)
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