What can Microsoft get with the acquisition of tiktok?

U.S. President trump signed an executive order on August 14, requiring Beijing byte hop Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “byte jitter”) to divest tiktok of all rights and interests in the U.S. operation within 90 days. < / P > < p > the executive order states that, no later than 90 days after the issuance of this order, CFIUS may require byte jump and its subsidiaries and Chinese shareholders to divest any tangible or intangible assets used to support tiktok’s operations in the United States, from tiktok and Musical.ly The application program obtains the relevant data of American users. < p > < p > on August 2, Microsoft officially announced that it would quickly seek to negotiate with byte skipping and complete the negotiation before September 15. In addition to tiktok’s business in the United States, the negotiation will also involve tiktok’s business in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Microsoft said that the current is a preliminary discussion, and Microsoft will not disclose more information until there is a clear result of the talks between the two sides. < / P > < p > if Microsoft successfully acquired tiktok this time, it will be another attempt for Microsoft to transform into mobile Internet business after acquiring LinkedIn. Apart from other factors, from a purely technical point of view, what can Microsoft get? The product characteristics of

are not secret. Nowadays, the product development around customer experience has almost become the standard of industry tiktok, and there is no difference between them at first. Generally speaking, enterprises will iterate products according to the customer’s needs and experience to keep ahead. Therefore, after Microsoft takes over, if it can’t continuously innovate and make something more attractive to customers, tiktok is likely to be mediocre in terms of products.

countries have different requirements in terms of customer privacy protection and information security. Therefore, when TikTok is developing business in different countries, it must also match local policies, which means that some tiktok technologies that are successfully used in the trill can not be used in the US. Taking tiktok’s U.S. business as an example, its policy compliance, especially the use of AI technology, is relatively conservative, so even if it giants like Microsoft take over, there may not be a breakthrough. < / P > < p > in this way, what Microsoft can inherit is tiktok’s operation ability in the United States and the operation results gained during this period. Are these assets and capabilities valuable to Microsoft? < p > < p > in recent years, in the field of virtual reality (VR) / augmented reality (AR) and even hybrid reality (MR), Microsoft has made a lot of technical reserves. If it can make a breakthrough in the individual customer market, it will surely make great achievements. Therefore, Microsoft has been trying to do more 2C business. This transformation is not a conventional business expansion, but a strategic consideration. But the past few acquisitions, whether Nokia or LinkedIn, have not turned Microsoft around. This time, tiktok gave Microsoft another opportunity to make up for its lack of 2C business. < / P > < p > first of all, the original tiktok customer resources and application content in the United States can be inherited by Microsoft. Microsoft can not only regard the customers gained as the target customers of its games and video products, but also directly connect with the creators of tiktok to try to present new value around the application content. < / P > < p > secondly, the original operation data of tiktok in the United States, especially the behavior data of customers, can be inherited by Microsoft. In the era of big data, tiktok is the most active application at present. Its data and information can be used for Microsoft to directly understand the usage and interests of users and creators, and to optimize Microsoft’s products and business. < / P > < p > compared with solid-state data and information, tiktok has used advanced operation concepts and skills to defeat a number of American Mobile Internet enterprises, such as Facebook. Therefore, the ability and experience of these operations will be more helpful to Microsoft. < / P > < p > therefore, for Microsoft, even if it is unable to inherit all the technology and products, it will be a very cost-effective business as long as the operation capacity and operation data of tiktok can be obtained through acquisition. This can also be seen from the capital market reaction. In a few days, the market value of Microsoft has increased by $80 billion. < / P > < p > if the scope of acquisition is further expanded, tiktok’s customer resources and operation results outside the United States will be included, which will greatly accelerate the international expansion of Microsoft in the field of mobile Internet business. According to the data of the first half of 2020, tiktok’s customer scale and business volume in the United States are increasing rapidly, and its competitors, including Facebook, have no strength to fight back. This is the effect of byte beat’s implementation of “global products + localized operation”. After Microsoft takes over, can this development momentum continue? < / P > < p > first of all, Microsoft’s performance in the field of mobile Internet is not outstanding. Compared with other American social software companies, Microsoft is not only lack of operation and management experience, but also its own corporate culture and heavy management mode are not suitable for tiktok, which is light assets operation. < p > < p > secondly, the failure rate of large-scale M & A conducted by Microsoft is relatively high. In September 2012, Microsoft once acquired yammer, an enterprise social application, in an attempt to strengthen its business in the field of social network, but then there was no voice, and even the staff went to the office 365 team. < / P > < p > if tiktok is allowed to operate independently, can it continue to develop at a high speed without the support of byte hopping in terms of products and technologies and simply relying on the localized operation capability? < / P > < p > and if we get involved in the operation of tiktok, or Microsoft provides the support of products and technologies, how much more growth will be left in the hands of Microsoft, which is now a business belonging to young people? < / P > < p > these may all have to be marked with a question mark. After all, the Internet business has always been in the leading position for three or five years. The progress of technology and the deviation of interests and hobbies are very fast. If the Internet business fails to catch up with the pace or the momentum is blocked, it is difficult to rise again. If the development momentum is blocked, it may be difficult to lead the show again, and eventually become the food for Microsoft’s transformation and growth. (the author is an expert in the telecommunication industry, and once served as the chief strategic planning expert of software)