TikTok is the best social app since Instagram. Kinda feel sad for its Chinese founder. The Zhang guy is really good, but caught in the middle of great geopolitical fights. The irony is that the Chinese government also banned another one of their social apps because it was too popular and its fans were having meetups in real life. Felt too much like a political movement for the CCP. So Zhang has the honor of being banned by both the American and the Chinese governments.
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If Iâm the government, be very afraid of the social media.
China still command economy. it controls all the transport networks which channels need subsidy. Apple will follow what is profitable to it considering constraints coming in from China. Apple only answerable to shareholder to keep stock high regardless how many products sold in US stores as it is not even showing the quantity sold in US just like Tesla.
first i gave you Germany example of Investing in Uzbekistan following China and now Railway freight from Uzbekistan have huge jump of 25%. these big jumps only can come due to China moving production around and using its own domestic labor for trade war and decoupling.
China is creating Global Soyabean alliance to accelerate decoupling from US farming.
Gigantic Nuclear ice breakers cannot happen without assurance that China want to use NSR route to Europe.this to break Ice. this will make shipping lines across Pacific ocean costly. Trade channels across pacific ocean will break apart.
Why Walmart joining forces with Microsoft to buy TikTok is not so shocking
Look like whoever get Tik Tok has huge advantage over their competitors. Why shouldnât Apple join the fray? Price? Incongruent with its corporate culture?
Remember Ping? Services are just not in Appleâs DNA. Itâs best at hardware that has long development cycle and can be done in relative secrecy.
Even for Microsoft I am not sure they can be a good owner of TikTok. From what I have read TTâs AI is really really good. How the new owner can yank it out from China and continue to polish it is an open question. Thatâs why I am bullish on robot face to destroy it in the long run. Doesnât hurt robot face can play dirty and has the drive to win.
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Anti-competitive behavior.
Xi should block the sale. Just close it down for US and India. He should also ban WeChat apps in USA. Shouldnât let code secrets leak out of Chinese companies. Trump is robbing IP in plain sight.
I donât think there is too much secrets to protect. TT just executes very very well. Best case for Robot Face is to have Walmart owns it. Some clueless middle aged white men from Arkansas. Great news for Robot Face!
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Zhang should have moved to the US, like the Zoom guy.
one way or another decoupling will continue.
Zhao had already on Thursday said âmany Chinese people are saying they may stop using iPhones if WeChat is banned in the USâ, and accused the US of âsystematic economic bullying of non-US companiesâ by targeting the Chinese app.
They have to do that because WeChat is the must-have mission critical apps for mainland Chinese. They need a phone with WeChat installed. Alternatively, they have to carry two phones, an iPhone (non-wechat usage) and a Xiaomi (WeChat usage).
Trump has already said he wonât ban WeChat for iPhone in China. He is only considering banning WeChat in USA. So Americans doing business with Chinese need to find another way to communicate/ conduct financial transactions with the Chinese, use iMessage and Apple Pay 
Notice AAPL hardly budge.
And Zhaoâs office uses iPhone to say they wonât use iPhones.
Maybe he should switch to a CPU-less Huawei phone.
he is using apps on Chinese made phone.
He is making this as Global issue by putting this into Foreign Ministry briefing.
now extrapolate the tiktok/5G situation (data security) to all the firms working in Europe.
Zhao is Chinaâs biggest Apple fan it seems. Always was, always will be.
when you analyze the big picture. how we are going to compete against it going forward?
US mega stocks rely on China. China want to pump US stocks into infinity that is ultimately weakining US dolllar.
Chinese labor market is more diversified and is greatly expanding it trade. Chinese have both railway and ship building industry that is many times bigger than US. Chinese will enjoy traveling in Bullet trains from Asia to Europe.
While in US 80% of Boeing aircraft production gone. (without Airlines how US is going to travel inside and outside). this thing has very long lead times and expensive to restart.
Even for farming. record Subsidies needed so people can afford its own food.
Chinese unversities not depended on Tuition fees on foreign students same extent.
In some alternative universe Europe is the greatest and US depends on China and India.
In this universe though:
Tech overtaking Europe is also reflected in the overall performance of the U.S. and European markets. Since the beginning of 2010, the S&P 500 has gained nearly 200%, while the Euro Stoxx 50 has risen 13.4% and the U.K.âs FTSE 100 has gained just under 11%.
10 whole years and only 13% gain. May as well give up.
your link exactly supported what i am saying. we have created zombie firms that completely depended on Asian labor (1m H1b and gc) and Europe engineering. on top of that all the retirements accounts are depended on it Multiplying stupidity.These firms and its employees are there own echo chamber. very less in common with majority of middle America.
The point is average European has much longer life expectancy. There real inflation rate is lower. most of education systems are free. actual interest rates to buy homes or vehicle much lower. The same with crime rates.
our private hospital system of higher quality can only survive in rich areas that will shrink further.
This is reality. This is unlikely to happen in Top Tier European or Russian cities.
Third bidder low balls at $20B. UK is not standing around to let Trump gets Tik Tok for a song (less a huge cut to Treasury, Tik Tok could get much less than $20B if sold to an US business).
Apparently, Xi didnât think so.
Chinese FM spent 3 days in Paris. and almost a week in Europe. The rest of Asia gets a cue from China.
The word autonomy means Europe goes in its own way internet and computer. and if all the Europe Engineering and skill labor transformed away from Aviation industry.
It will collapse Aviation industry in NorthAmerica. and we dont have fast trains to connect to Canada/Mexico or for that matter domestic travel. and this is just start of the impact. Europe can afford smaller aviation industry but we cannot. my huawei prediction.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/huawei-shifts-us-investments-to-russia-report/1958656