Taiwan recently overtook Intel in semiconductor manufacturing, another area where we used to be peerless. How long before China matches is on that front as well?
Chinese industrial policy is kicking our ass. The Fortune 500 executives that kiss Xi’s ass know this (https://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/business-a-lobbying/...). That’s why they’re so obsequious.
> True, and I don't know how much longer this can last.
Yeah, especially since many, many Americans seem to stupidly reassure themselves by wishfully thinking it's some kind of natural advantage they have (e.g. the Chinese only copy, etc.).
IMHO, it's not too wrong to assume the PRC essentially has technical parity now, which should be pretty concerning to Americans because they also stupidly disposed of many of their other capabilities for short term business reasons.
Twitter/Vine did not want to pay creators. I don't know the history on why YouTube/Twitch/TikTok figured it out and why Snap/Twitter/FB drag their feet with it. I remember there was a turning point where many large creators on Vine decided to move to Instagram/YouTube because it was easier to monetize.
Come on, that's sorta like saying "Google's only interesting technology is its search algorithm" (I'm being a little loose here, but going back 20 years I'd say that's true). When it's the defining feature of your product, it's the only thing that matters and why it's the leader. Unless somebody can mimic TikTok's success, dismissing them seems arrogant.
> which I doubt is that different or innovative compared to Netflix or Youtube
Speaking from personal experience, Youtube has a horrible recommendation system, and Netflix is somewhere between okay and good.
True, and I don't know how much longer this can last. As an example, the rise of TikTok has certainly taken me by surprise. I've always seen world-class social media apps as a Silicon-Valley thing, something that only the US managed to produce. But now, not so much.