Why have all the TikTok competitors launched by US social media companies been total flops, then?
The company which owns TikTok, ByteDance, has had employees speak about this. The VP and ByteDance's internal CPP committee secretary has stated that their intent is for ByteDance to "transmit the correct political direction, public opinion guidance and value orientation into every business and product line." While employees of a subsidiary company TopBuzz have spoken out about its intent to push CCP sympathizer content to foreign users.
ByteDance's history is mired by CCP interventions, it is a company heavily managed by the communist party, with multiple branches closed for non-compliance. It is allowed to exist by the CCP because, so it has been claimed very publicly, it toes the CCP's political line. That's how it measures success. Its success comes from this compliance.
TikTok may very well be a commercial flop in the West and still be in business, operating very well.
But do you have any counter-arguments? Like any claim that ByteDance isn't receiving existentially important benefits by being in CCP's good graces? Or does it just sound a certain way without much grounding in facts?
To me, all governments protect their own big industries. You don't think Meta has lobbyists behind the bill? You don't think Microsoft does - whom has made it clear that they're interesting in buying TikTok - as well?
Meta's war against Tiktok:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/03/30/faceboo...
https://variety.com/2022/digital/news/meta-facebook-tiktok-p...
The Huawei ban hugely benefited Apple, Cisco, and Samsung. But the Huawei ban also fired up China. After 5 years, Huawei is now making a huge comeback but this time, without dependencies on crucial American technology. Look at the reports of Huawei sales and Apple's decline in sales in China in Q1 2024.
China will now compete against America's semiconductor industry - instead of being buyers. The world also sees lesser of the US because of the Huawei ban. Now even some European countries are weary of relying too much on America.
So while the Huawei ban did initially boost American companies, the damage is everlasting and America can't deny that it's now in a protectionist state. You can fool the public through propaganda (such as "China bad") but not governments around the world.
US startups don't have access to that kind of capital, and even if their algo is better than tiktok, users make or break it, so they can't really get off the ground.
I'd say the closest idea is snapchat, and, that was/is massively hampered by the semi-slimy reputation it has. Sure it's profitable, but, had it never been used to send lewd images among college kids, it could very well have been as big as tiktok.