Social media

TikTok time-bomb

A popular app for silly video clips raises some serious questions

If this article were a TikTok video, it would already be almost over—and you would be smiling. TikTok’s 15-second clips are all the rage among teenage netizens. The app was downloaded more than 750m times in the past 12 months, more than Facebook plus its sister services, Instagram and WhatsApp, combined. Fun aside, TikTok raises serious questions—about data geopolitics, the power of internet incumbents and who sees what online.

TikTok is YouTube on steroids. It bombards users with self-repeating clips. It forms a genre of quick-hit entertainment: a prank, a dare, a teenager looking pretty. Most are produced by adolescents, with easy-to-use editing tools. The app makes money from adverts and commissions on digital tips. It may one day generate revenue from e-commerce, like its Chinese sister app, Douyin. Both are owned by ByteDance, a Beijing firm valued at $75bn, more than any other private startup.

The China connection has Washington in a tizzy. On November 1st it emerged that America’s government has opened a national-security review of ByteDance’s takeover in 2017 of Musical.ly, an app developed in China, which later became TikTok. On November 5th congressmen lambasted ByteDance for not showing up to a hearing.

Hawks argue that TikTok gives the government in Beijing access to data on millions of Americans and that it censors content the regime does not like. If America’s sanctions on Huawei, a maker of telecoms gear, are about disentangling electronics supply chains, its assault on ByteDance is an attempt to keep the data flows of America and China separate. ByteDance rejects these accusations, saying that non-Chinese user data sit on non-Chinese servers, and that decisions about what not to show American users are made in America.

For his part, Mark Zuckerberg is less worried about data sovereignty and more about competition from TikTok, China’s first runaway web success in America. Facebook is pulling out the big guns it deploys against fast-growing upstarts. In late 2018 it launched Lasso, a TikTok clone. An independent developer recently unearthed a feature hidden in Instagram’s code that apes TikTok’s editing tools. It is cold comfort to Mr Zuckerberg that should his defences fail, Big Tech’s critics will have to concede that digital monopolies are not that invincible after all.

All these worries would be allayed if TikTok turns out to be a passing fad. In a way, the app is only riding on other social networks. It relies on people’s Facebook or Twitter accounts for many sign-ins. TikTok owes part of its success to relentless advertising on rival services. According to some estimates, it spent perhaps $1bn on social-media ads in 2018. At the same time, many who download TikTok quickly tire of its endless digital sugar-rush.

Slowing growth may not stop politicians from hobbling the app. They could decide to bar it from America altogether. For once, Mr Zuckerberg would be cheering them on.

经济学人商论官方译文

社交媒体

          TikTok定时炸弹

一款大热的搞笑短视频应用引发了一些严肃议题

这篇文章如果是一条TikTok（抖音国际版）短视频，到这里差不多就结束了，而你面带笑容。TikTok的15秒短视频正在青少年网民中风行。过去12个月来，这款应用的下载次数超过7.5亿，比Facebook加上其姐妹服务Instagram和WhatsApp的总和还多。撇开趣味性不谈，这款应用引发了一些严肃议题，包括数据地缘政治、老牌互联网企业的势力，以及网民会看到什么样的内容。

 TikTok就像是打了兴奋剂的YouTube。它用循环播放的短视频轰炸用户，形成了一种短平快的娱乐类型：恶作剧、大冒险、看起来很漂亮的少男少女。这些视频大多是由青少年使用简便的编辑工具制作的。TikTok靠广告和从打赏中抽成赚取利润，日后还可能像它的中国版应用抖音一样通过电子商务产生收入。这两个应用都隶属北京公司字节跳动。这家公司估值750亿美元，比其他任何私有创业公司都高。

 TikTok就像是打了兴奋剂的YouTube。它用循环播放的短视频轰炸用户，形成了一种短平快的娱乐类型：恶作剧、大冒险、看起来很漂亮的少男少女。这些视频大多是由青少年使用简便的编辑工具制作的。TikTok靠广告和从打赏中抽成赚取利润，日后还可能像它的中国版应用抖音一样通过电子商务产生收入。这两个应用都隶属北京公司字节跳动。这家公司估值750亿美元，比其他任何私有创业公司都高。

美国鹰派政客称**政府可借由TikTok访问数百万美国人的数据，并审查屏蔽中国当局不喜欢的内容。如果美国制裁电信设备制造商华为是为了在电子设备供应链上断绝与中国的关系，这次攻击字节跳动则是想让两国的数据流划清界线。字节跳动否认这些指控，称非中国用户的数据存储在海外服务器上，而对美国用户屏蔽哪些内容的决定也是在美国做出的。

 对于扎克伯格来说，他更担心的不是数据主权问题，而是TikTok带来的竞争，这是中国网络产品首次在美国大获成功。Facebook正在使出它用以对付快速增长的新贵企业的强大武器。2018年末，它推出了模仿TikTok的Lasso。不久前，一位独立开发者发现了隐藏在Instagram代码中一项模仿TikTok编辑工具的功能。假如Facebook防御失利，科技巨头的批评者将被打脸，不得不承认数字垄断终究并非坚不可摧，但对扎克伯格来说，这可算不上什么安慰。

 人工智能的批评者也在密切关注这一来自中国的应用。在Facebook和其他西方社交媒体上，用户看到的内容在一定程度上仍取决于其好友是谁，以及好友们发布了什么。而TikTok的主信息流“推荐”完全由算法决定：它监视用户在应用中的行为，并运用这些信息来决定后续播放的内容。这样的系统会形成信息同质化的终极过滤气泡。

 假如TikTok到头来只是风行一时，所有这些忧虑自然会消除。从某种意义上说，这个应用不过是搭乘其他社交网络的便车而已。它很多时候都需要人们使用Facebook或Twitter帐户登录。TikTok的成功部分归功于不懈地在对手的服务平台上投放广告。据估计，2018年TikTok花费了约10亿美元在社交媒体上投放广告。与此同时，许多下载了TikTok的人很快就厌倦了上面没完没了、热闹得让人上头的内容。

增长放缓也许并不能阻止政客出手限制该应用。他们有可能会决定在美国全面禁用TikTok。这次，扎克伯格会站在政客这边为他们拍手鼓劲。