Agree that the TikTok deal smells super fishy, but after digging into it more I actually think it’s a win for both sides.
How much of TikTok’s value is in the algorithm? 50%+?
Reading between the lines, giving up ownership of the algorithm was clearly a nonstarter for Bytedance, so they had to swallow a big haircut on valuation.
The US gets control over the data & the content that gets served to US users. Bytedance takes a $10-$20B bath on the stake they sold, but they’ll make that back in a few years from the profit share.
Agree that the TikTok deal smells super fishy, but after digging into it more I actually think it’s a win for both sides.
How much of TikTok’s value is in the algorithm? 50%+?
Reading between the lines, giving up ownership of the algorithm was clearly a nonstarter for Bytedance, so they had to swallow a big haircut on valuation.
The US gets control over the data & the content that gets served to US users. Bytedance takes a $10-$20B bath on the stake they sold, but they’ll make that back in a few years from the profit share.