Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #bytedance
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For ppl who are following the #Tiktok hearing at the Capitol Hill now: #Bytedance, the parent company of the social media app, established it's own Communist Party's committee in 2017.
Orders to compromise data can be ordered from the party's chain of command, not by state.
Orders to compromise data can be ordered from the party's chain of command, not by state.
Data in Texas alone cannot safeguard it.
Third party audit of source code and algorithm will not solve it.
As long as there's a chance which a PRC-based Bytedance staff can touch upon US-based user data, the CCP chain of command can order them to extract it w/o consequences.
Third party audit of source code and algorithm will not solve it.
As long as there's a chance which a PRC-based Bytedance staff can touch upon US-based user data, the CCP chain of command can order them to extract it w/o consequences.
For more information on CCP's operation in PRC's tech companies, check out @rockngo's China Digital Times article.
I met Prof. Xiao a decade ago when I was in Berkeley. His project is a decade strong!
chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/652216…
I met Prof. Xiao a decade ago when I was in Berkeley. His project is a decade strong!
chinadigitaltimes.net/chinese/652216…
As #TikTok's CEO is being grilled by the US House Committee on Energy and Commerce, it's time to cut through the noise on what the issues are with TikTok and why the USG, through #CFIUS, seems trending toward a force divestiture.
First, I cannot disclose anything about this transaction that I learned while working on CFIUS matters in the USG. Everything on this thread is based on information that is publicly available through news reporting.
The issues with Tiktok is two-fold – data security and the ability to manipulate the algorithm for propaganda. I wrote an explainer about this in the Washington Post back in 2020: washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/…
Here is how #platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die. 1/
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/pot… 2/
pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/pot… 2/
I call this #enshittification, and it is a seemingly inevitable consequence arising from the combination of the ease of changing how a platform allocates value, combined with the nature of a "two sided market." 3/
You probably don’t have time to read everything, but #TikTok Parent #ByteDance Planned To Use #TikTok To #Monitor The Physical Location Of Specific #AmericanCitizens by #Forbes is a must read - here’s a summary :
The U.S. government is investigating whether TikTok's Chinese ownership could enable the Chinese government to access personal information about U.S. TikTok users and whether this poses a national security risk.
The project, assigned to a Beijing-led team, would have involved accessing location data from some U.S. users’ devices without their knowledge or consent
1/ Thread: $SPOT Deep Dive
80 pg. slide deck here 👉🏼 patient-capital.de/s/SPOT.pdf
In this thread I'll walk you through my assumptions for the bear, base and bull case for Spotify.
The deck has seven chapters, starting with "SPOT AT A GLANCE".
80 pg. slide deck here 👉🏼 patient-capital.de/s/SPOT.pdf
In this thread I'll walk you through my assumptions for the bear, base and bull case for Spotify.
The deck has seven chapters, starting with "SPOT AT A GLANCE".
2/
With 172m paid subs and 381m MAUs $SPOT is the clear leader in music streaming (35% ms). SPOT is 2x the size of its nearest competitor $AAPL in terms of paid subs and has 2x the user engagement.
But so far SPOT never turned a full year profit + the stock dropped sharply TTM.
With 172m paid subs and 381m MAUs $SPOT is the clear leader in music streaming (35% ms). SPOT is 2x the size of its nearest competitor $AAPL in terms of paid subs and has 2x the user engagement.
But so far SPOT never turned a full year profit + the stock dropped sharply TTM.
3/
In music, $SPOT has to pay out ~2/3 of rev to rightsholders, its supplier base is highly concentrated (top 4 labels account for 78% of all streams).
To loosen the labels’ grip on economics, SPOT pushes into podcast adverts with 45-50% gross margin potential vs. 30% in music.
In music, $SPOT has to pay out ~2/3 of rev to rightsholders, its supplier base is highly concentrated (top 4 labels account for 78% of all streams).
To loosen the labels’ grip on economics, SPOT pushes into podcast adverts with 45-50% gross margin potential vs. 30% in music.
China has warned investing in Metaverse stating its still infancy and could likely end in tears for investors
Meanwhile ByteDance has bought VR gear maker Pico for $1.4 billion
#China #Bytedanc #Metaverse #Pico #VR #VRChat
Meanwhile ByteDance has bought VR gear maker Pico for $1.4 billion
#China #Bytedanc #Metaverse #Pico #VR #VRChat
#Pico was valued by PE investors in March 2021 at nearly $155 Million and now #Bytedance has purchased Pico at $1.4 Billion… a very aggressive valuation for a VR gear manufacturer
VR is the interface of Metaverse, but at present, the most widely used scene of consumer VR is games.
#VR #Metaverse #AR #GamingNFT
#VR #Metaverse #AR #GamingNFT
1/21 A long thread of local context for Ant Financials’ Credit Scoring Joint Venture and Chinese state ownership. There has been significant recent news of Chinese SOEs taking stakes in private companies. #PBOC #BABA #China #Ant #Didi #ByteDance #Hefei #ZheJiang #Evergrand
2/21 How to make sense of this trend? ONE: the government’s goal is to take enough equity to acquire a seat in the board, bail out a locally troubled company, or pure investment return, not necessarily ownership and control per se.
3/21 Taking state ownership means government needs to pony up significant capital. In BOE Tech deal, Hefei city put in more than $2 billion. It had four more investment deals with >$1 billion. Many numerous deals like PuDao Credit, the Beijing-affiliated SOE put up $52.5million.
Liang Rubo and founder Zhang Yiming were dormitory roommates in university where they forged a deep friendship, studying, programming, and playing badminton together. When Yiming's dorm room PC was stolen, Rubo lent him money to buy a new one which they shared use of.
Rubo has a solid engineering background, at one point he was technical director for ByteDance back when the company was known only for its newsfeed app Toutiao "Daily Headlines"
Rubo's GitHub page: github.com/liangrubo
Rubo's GitHub page: github.com/liangrubo
@tiktok_us @BytedanceTalk #TikTok #Bytedance #ZhangYiming
One of the mysteries of the TikTok ban saga is why Zhang Yiming, CEO of Tiktok’s owner ByteDance, wasn’t better prepared for the Trump administration’s onslaught
One of the mysteries of the TikTok ban saga is why Zhang Yiming, CEO of Tiktok’s owner ByteDance, wasn’t better prepared for the Trump administration’s onslaught
Zhang was not focused on international politics. And the company didn’t staff up to meet the potential challenges.
As of 2018, ByteDance executives in China were managing TikTok’s global expansion.
As of 2018, ByteDance executives in China were managing TikTok’s global expansion.
Some of the company’s employees in Beijing were tasked with analyzing potential regulatory and legal risks in foreign markets where TikTok operated. But most of those employees on that team didn’t have any real-world experiences related to policy or legal issues...
قصه اینه که #ByteDance کمپانی مادریه که #Douyin رو سال ۲۰۱۶ به عنوان یه استارتآپ خصوصی برای مارکت چین راه میندازه، سال بعد که این استارتآپ گل میکنه #TikTok رو برای مارکتهای غیرچینی عرضه میکنه؛ نکته اینجاست که این دو تا اپ علیرغم شکل و لوگوی یکسان اساساً دو محصول متفاوتن!...
تیکتاک در چین قابل دسترس نیست (اگر از قبل روی گوشی داشته باشین هم امکان لاگین نیست) همونطور که Douyin در خارج چین در دسترس نیست؛ سرورهاشون هم به گفته بایتدنس جداست؛ حتی اگه یک کیورد رو همزمان در داخل چین روی Douyin و در خارج چین روی تیکتاک سرچ کنید نتایج متفاوت میگیرید...
اما هر دو اپ دووین و تیکتاک فیلترینگ مستمر محتوا دارن که از سمت دولت بیجینگ دیکته میشه؛ قسمت ترسناکتر اونجاست که به گفته خود ByteDance که ادعا کرده با اینکه سرورهای تیکتاک در خارج چینه(!) در صورت درخواست مقامات اطلاعات کاربران با مقامات چین به اشتراک گذاشته میشه...
@BytedanceTalk #ByteDance hopes of getting #PresidentTrump approval for its proposed deal with @Oracle #oracle appear to be dwindling by the day, judging by the blizzard of media reports about the debate going on inside the Trump administration.
That raises the prospect that ByteDance will have to accept a less favorable deal by yielding control of the app to some conglomeration of @Walmart #Walmart , Oracle, ByteDance’s U.S. #VentureCapital shareholders and maybe public investors in the U.S. through an #IPO
The #Chinese government might still block this option, killing the deal entirely. But assume for a moment they approve it. What happens to @tiktok_us #TikTok afterwards? To answer that, consider how you would have reacted if four months ago ByteDance had decided to sell TikTok...
Well now #Tiktok can't sell its algorithms according to China's law. TikTok is about to reach a deal with Oracle allowing it to retain control over its algorithms. As can be imagined, Trump doesn't like that. Before Trump said #ByteDance possessing data was a threat to the US
national security. Now Trump considers #Bytedance controlling its own algorithms is also a threat to the US national security. He is frustrated that the US treasury can't take a cut. He frets "What kind of a rule is that?".
google.com/amp/s/amp.theg…
google.com/amp/s/amp.theg…
Nobody knows better than the US how to destroy the rule based international economic order.
Whatever US says is the rule and order. China dares to challenge this? Then China shall be dealt with the propaganda of destroying the economic order. Such is the art of subterfuge.
Whatever US says is the rule and order. China dares to challenge this? Then China shall be dealt with the propaganda of destroying the economic order. Such is the art of subterfuge.
Great article on how #ByteDance's #tiktok algorithms made it such a success in #China; mainly because in #China, AI algorithms have been applied at scale to entertainment. With AI, the more inputs you have, the better and more accurate the algorithm becomes.
#ByteDance @ByteDance which owns @tiktok #Helo is worth $110bn; 30% of TikTok users are Indians and it is 100% for #Helo. That's why @narendramodi @rsprasad ban on #Chinese #Apps @UCBrowser @BigoLiveIn etc will really hurt say @IshaanGera @RishiKala
instagram.com/p/CCEzaY5nknr/…
instagram.com/p/CCEzaY5nknr/…
The app ban will be effective but don't extend this treatment to firms with Chinese investments @Paytm @vijayshekhar @Olacabs @Flipkart @Practo #HikeMessenger etc Tens of thousands of jobs at stake, will also spook investors @PiyushGoyal @narendramodi
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"Data-access requests that most Chinese mobile applications make outnumber their non-Chinese alternatives."
My Extensive analysis of Mobile applications+devices of Chinese firms & the possibilities of Data harvesting.
indiatoday.in/business/story…
#dataprotection #TikTok #Mitron
"Data-access requests that most Chinese mobile applications make outnumber their non-Chinese alternatives."
My Extensive analysis of Mobile applications+devices of Chinese firms & the possibilities of Data harvesting.
indiatoday.in/business/story…
#dataprotection #TikTok #Mitron
Ever wondered how many permissions you grant when you install a Chinese app on your mobile handsets?
When data is regarded as the vital fuel for the digital economy, data-access requests that most Chinese mobile applications make outnumber their non-Chinese alternatives.
When data is regarded as the vital fuel for the digital economy, data-access requests that most Chinese mobile applications make outnumber their non-Chinese alternatives.
Either available on the Google Play Store or Apple's App Store, these applications usually list permissions they require for installation.
A comparative analysis of Play Store information reveals startling facts about the volume of data Chinese applications seek from their users
A comparative analysis of Play Store information reveals startling facts about the volume of data Chinese applications seek from their users
In 2013, that same Russian investor from Dan’s story came out of nowhere to make one of the greatest venture bets in the history of China. Why did #Bytedance choose an outsider to lead their Series B round? Here’s the story:
Bytedance’s earliest funding was led by founder Zhang Yiming’s friend Joan Wang (SIG Asia). Joan had worked with Yiming for years and knew exactly how capable he was but other VCs were absolutely unimpressed. Joan introduced Yiming to 20+ of her contacts. No one was optimistic.
Yiming was a baby-faced, softly spoken, engineering geek. The opposite of Jack Ma’s brash and confident gladiatorial entrepreneur style favored by Chinese investors. One left after just 15 minutes and complained later to Joan: "It's not my investment style to look at this kid."
