If imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, no company has earned as much admiration in the past year as TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance.
But amid all this mimicry, a trend is quickly emerging: TikTok actually wants to be more like to be competitors.
TikTok hasn’t been so quiet about developing or rolling out several new features designed to steal market share from many of the tech industry’s powerful players, including Apple, Google, and Meta. While many of these updates are still in the testing phase, the scope and ambition of TikTok’s expansion signal ByteDance’s ambitions to create a super app-like product that can reshape the digital landscape.
In the past few months alone, various media outlets (mainly led by TechCrunch) have documented TikTok’s burgeoning efforts to delve deeper into the search, streaming, and advertising worlds, among others. They contain:
- Add a dedicated store tab and extend the range of shopping ads features, giving businesses more tools to target potential customers directly. The effort aims to capitalize on TikTok users’ preference for finding new products and brands on the app, bypassing sites like Amazon and Google.
- Making it easier for users to quickly perform searches within video comment sections by automatically highlighting and linking common keywords. The update comes as Google executives warn that younger users are increasingly using TikTok as a search engine, affecting the Alphabet unit’s lucrative search advertising business.
- Testing various “minigames” that can be played on the TikTok mobile app. The move could lead to revenue from other companies hosting mobile games in their apps, including Apple, Google and Meta.
- Filing a trademark application for “TikTok Music”, which could precede the launch of an audio streaming platform designed to compete with Spotify, Apple and other music services. While TikTok has not announced any additional audio streaming plans, it already operates one platform, called Resso, in Brazil, India and Indonesia. A former ByteDance employee also told TechCrunch that the company has been considering launching Resso under the “TikTok Music” brand in other countries.
In fairness to the Big Tech giants being targeted by TikTok, the ByteDance unit still has to prove that it doesn’t bite more than it can chew.
TikTok has certainly rocked the tech sector by capitalizing on the shift in flavor to algorithm-recommended content and short video, allowing the platform to amass a user base of more than 1 billion people. However, it will take a massive effort to simultaneously become a major player in social media, e-commerce, audio streaming, mobile gaming, advertising and more.
At the same time, TikTok is increasingly coming under the same microscope that has unraveled Facebook’s reputation in recent years. The company’s role in spreading misinformation, contributing to users’ mental health problems and exhausting employees has become a regular part of the tech headlines in recent months.
To top it off, US lawmakers are already annoyed at TikTok’s influence in light of ByteDance’s roots, warning that the Chinese government could mine the company’s data and use its app to spread pro-Communist propaganda. to spread.
But if the last five years have shown us anything about TikTok, it’s that the platform can adapt and grow at unprecedented speeds. ByteDance could turn its massive user base, superior AI technology, and obvious business cunning into a new breed of digital behemoth — one that makes its competitors want to be even more like TikTok.
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Jacob Timmerman
NEWSWORTHY
Mark your calendars. Apple tentatively plan to start selling its latest iPhone line in mid-September, the first of several product releases slated for the second half of 2022, Bloomberg reported Thursday. Sources familiar with Apple’s plans told Bloomberg that the company is targeting a launch event for the iPhone 14 on September 7, with the smartphone going on sale on September 16. Apple typically makes iPhones available to the public about a week after launch. The company has not announced specific dates for either occasion.
All inclusive on Tolkien. Embracer group has acquired the intellectual property rights until Under the spell of the Ring and the hobbit, part of a spending pattern announced Thursday by the Swedish media and video game company, The Verge reported. The deal gives Embracer control of multiple rights, including film, television, video games and merchandising, related to the JRR Tolkien fantasy series. Embracer revealed five acquisitions totaling $577 million in initial costs, along with a sixth undisclosed purchase.
The choir is growing. Chinese officials rejected a recently signed US law which provides $52 billion in federal subsidies to semiconductor manufacturers, and joins a group of foreign officials who oppose key parts of the package, Bloomberg reported Thursday. The vice chairman of the China Semiconductor Industry Association said the legislation discriminates against the republic and violates World Trade Organization rules, echoing comments from European Union and South Korean officials. The law, commonly known as the CHIPS-Plus Act, Bars Recipients of Federal Funds of expanding their advanced semiconductor manufacturing business in China for 10 years.
On the sunny side. Cisco beyond analysts fiscal fourth quarter profit and revenue estimates, while also providing a better-than-expected outlook for the next 12 months, CNBC reported Wednesday. The software giant saw its fourth-quarter revenue, revenue and margins decline year on year, but company executives predicted a fiscal year 2023 rebound that exceeded analyst expectations. Cisco shares rose 6% in afternoon trading Thursday.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Make an example of it. As Congress slowly debates a sweeping state data privacy law, the Federal Trade Commission has begun taking action on a hot-button issue. The Washington Post reported Thursday that FTC officials are threatening to sue an Idaho-based ad-tech company, alleging its mobile tracking data allows customers to identify people visiting sensitive locations. Those areas of interest include clinics that provide abortion-related services, addiction treatment centers, and other health care facilities. While the threat of lawsuits carries symbolic weight, the FTC typically doesn’t launch many privacy-related lawsuits due to limited resources.
Of the article:
The move is an early indication of how the agency could assert itself as a defender of health-related data, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in June. The FTC action comes as prominent Democrats, privacy advocates and technologists warn that people’s digital tracks could become evidence in abortion prosecutions, and after cases where details such as search history and Facebook posts about the proceedings have been used as evidence against women. .
In the absence of a comprehensive federal privacy law, there are limited steps Democrats in Washington can take to protect reproductive health data.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Apple didn’t want to pay an hourly wage for the time they spent searching through their suitcases. It has now settled a $30.5 million lawsuitby Alice Hearing
TikTok tackles disinformation and paid political content ahead of US midterm electionsby Alena Botros
Adam Neumann’s $350 million comeback is a ‘slap in the face’ for female founders and founders of colorby Emma Hinchliffe and Paige McGlauflin
Calls for SEC probe disassembly after potential pump-and-dump of Bed Bath & Beyond shares of meme stock kingby Christian Hetzner
Why real estate startups are hot right now, according to a top VCby Anne Sraders
BEFORE YOU GO
Stop stealing? Don’t be surprised if you hear the royalty-free tune “Happy Birthday” on more proprietary TikTok videos. Insider reported on Wednesday that the titans of the audio industry Universal Music Group and Sony music are becoming more and more trying to eradicate copyright infringements of songs by influencers and companies using TikTok. While regular users are licensed to put some tunes on their videos, UMG and Sony claim that big brands like Bang Energy parent company Vital Medicines have violated copyrights by using snippets of hit songs in TikTok marketing videos. Both companies are suing Vital Pharmaceuticals, which has received billions of views on its Bang Energy TikTok videos.
Correction: Wednesday’s edition of the Data Sheet erroneously stated the amount that the Congressional Budget Office estimates will be spent on semiconductor subsidies through the CHIPS-Plus Act by the end of 2025. It’s $16 billion.
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