Re:ByteDance investors value TikTok at $50B in takeover bid
by 3FBD4FDE on Thursday July 30, 2020 @05:25AM
(#23996143)
> Because it simply isn't from a western country
That's a false projection. For example, products from Korea and Japan are very popular in the US. App from those countries would have no problem. China is qualitatively different.
> must be bought out at some crappy valuation
Nobody is forcing the sale, they also have the option to stop operating -- like Google chose to do re: China when they refused PRC demands.
> WhatsApp for example should be forced to sell its Indian operations to Reliance Industries
You mean like how US companies are forced to vest technology with local partners to operate in China?
https://money.cnn.com/2018/04/05/news/economy/china-foreign-...
For example, non-Chinese companies cannot sell electric cars in China without handing over their trade secrets.
Is that fair?
As someone who grew up outside the US or a western country I don't really see anything wrong with TikTok. If they do something Facebook or Google or your runt of the litter tracking script will do it. I am also not brought up in China or a country involved in this dispute so feel I have a neutral view.
What I see as torturously unfair that this founder made a great startup and app that people do enjoy to consume. Because it simply isn't from a western country he must be bought out at some crappy valuation (which he probably doesnt even want to do) simply because this is the first foreign tech company to do well in the US that isn't from a western country.
If this happens where TikTok is banned/has to sell, etc. I would feel it completely reasonable that India, Africa, China, some small Eastern European country, SE Asia forces a US company to sell down its local operations at a price they dictate to a local business.
WhatsApp for example should be forced to sell its Indian operations to Reliance Industries. Don't any of you think that sounds rather unfair to Facebook?