[LOL, when Musk was named to the DOGE, many suspected he'd wind up owning Tiktok US - Mike]

Chinese officials will face tough negotiations with the Trump
administration - the TikTok negotiations are a potential area for reconciliation

From TLDR 2025-01-14

CHINA DISCUSSES SALE OF TIKTOK US TO MUSK AS ONE POSSIBLE OPTION (8
MINUTE READ) [9]

Chinese officials are evaluating a potential option that involves
Elon Musk acquiring the US operations of TikTok. The plan involves X
taking control of the platform and running the businesses together. It
is unclear whether Musk, TikTok, or ByteDance have held any talks
about the terms of any possible deal. TikTok may no longer be in
ByteDance's sole control. Chinese officials recognize that they will
face tough negotiations with the Trump administration, so they see the
TikTok negotiations as a potential area for reconciliation.

USERS WORRIED ABOUT TIKTOK BAN APPEAR TO BE DOWNLOADING A DIFFERENT
CHINESE SOCIAL MEDIA APP (3 MINUTE READ) [10]

Chinese social media app RedNote is at the top of Apple's app store.
RedNote is often thought of as the Chinese equivalent of Instagram.
The company was founded in 2013 and had about 300 million monthly
active users in July 2024. It was valued at $17 billion in July - it
has raised over $900 million in total funding and has more than 2,000 employees. Many TikTok creators are rushing to find an alternative
platform where they can keep posting videos while waiting to see what
happens with TikTok, which faces a potential ban on January 19.

US SPLITS WORLD INTO THREE TIERS FOR AI CHIP ACCESS (4 MINUTE READ) [18]

The new regulations set specific numerical limits on AI chip exports,
with first-tier countries facing no restrictions.

STARLINK IS NOW CHEAPER THAN LEADING INTERNET PROVIDER IN SOME
AFRICAN COUNTRIES (5 MINUTE READ) [11]

Starlink, now available in more than 100 countries, is cheaper than
the leading fixed internet service provider in at least five of the 16
African countries where the service is available. The company does not
offer fixed rates - it instead adjusts prices to reflect market
conditions. Its satellites are able to provide services where
ground-based internet infrastructure is sparse or nonexistent.
Starlink has disrupted the existing internet service provider industry
in Kenya, where it became so popular that the company had to pause new subscriptions due to network overload.

BEZOS' HUGE NEW ROCKET LAUNCH SHUT DOWN MINUTES BEFORE LIFTOFF (3
MINUTE READ) [12]

Blue Origin was scheduled to lift off yesterday morning but the
mission was scrubbed right before it was scheduled to launch. The
company is now troubleshooting a vehicle subsystem issue and reviewing opportunities for its next launch. Blue Origin still has until January
16 to launch before the currently approved launch window elapses. Its
New Glenn rocket has faced many setbacks during its over a decade of development.

GOOGLE'S SEARCH MARKET SHARE DROPS BELOW 90% FOR FIRST TIME SINCE
2015 (2 MINUTE READ) [21]

Google's search market share seems to be fairly consistent in most
regions except Asia.

WHAT I WOULD TELL THE FRONTIER LABS (7 MINUTE READ) [23]

Humans learn by doing - AI short circuits the process and this could
slowly erode our ability to think differently.

Links:
------
[9] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-01-14/china-discusses-sale-of- tiktok-us-to-musk-as-one-possible-option?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cC I6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTczNjgyMTQx MiwiZXhwIjoxNzM3NDI2MjEyLCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJTUFJTMDNUMEFGQjQwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQ iOiJFQTExNDNDNTM4NEE0RUY5QTg5RjJEN0IxMTg2MzcwOSJ9.6X_6f_nvyavl9Ykh_Je8OFxaVx_z7 5nM1MiOEr4dOFs&utm_source=tldrnewsletter
[10] https://www.cnbc.com/2025/01/13/as-tiktok-faces-us-ban-chinasr-rednote-top s-apple-app-store.html?utm_source=tldrnewsletter
[11] https://restofworld.org/2025/starlink-cheaper-internet-africa/?utm_source= tldrnewsletter
[12] https://futurism.com/the-byte/bezos-huge-rocket-launch-scrubbed?utm_source =tldrnewsletter
[18] https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/01/biden-administration-puts-quotas-on-glo bal-ai-chip-sales/?utm_source=tldrnewsletter
[21] https://searchengineland.com/google-search-market-share-drops-2024-450497? utm_source=tldrnewsletter
[23] https://rohan.ga/blog/critique/?utm_source=tldrnewsletter

-- https://tldr.tech
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Chinese officials are evaluating a potential option that involves
Elon Musk acquiring the US operations of TikTok. The plan involves X taking control of the platform and running the businesses together. It
is unclear whether Musk, TikTok, or ByteDance have held any talks
about the terms of any possible deal. TikTok may no longer be in ByteDance's sole control. Chinese officials recognize that they will
face tough negotiations with the Trump administration, so they see the TikTok negotiations as a potential area for reconciliation.

There are some things that I don't get about X:

I don't get why Twitter was worth $44 billion dollars. It's a very lackluster social network, especially compared to Facebook. Big Lots was sold for $2.5 million dollars, which to me, has much more value than any website in the whole world. Big Lots has distribution centers, a fleet of trucks, company uniforms, etc. (Twitter has a few PHP files and a bird logo.)

So now, regarding this TikTok deal, I don't get why Musk wouldn't just make his own version of it, and call it TokTicker, or something like that. Nobody needs TikTok, and from what I can tell, Instagram offers the equivalent of TikTok and then some, so why not just let TikTok cease to exist?

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There are some things that I don't get about X:

I don't get why Twitter was worth $44 billion dollars. It's a very lackluster social network, especially compared to Facebook. Big Lots was sold for $2.5 million dollars, which to me, has much more value than any website in the whole world. Big Lots has distribution centers, a fleet of trucks, company uniforms, etc. (Twitter has a few PHP files and a bird logo.)

You think servers, datacenters, and all the infrastructure that runs them is free?

But honestly the biggest value was the users. Active users and personal data is worth a fortune.

And I think the one language that Twitter isn't using is PHP, so swing and a miss on that one too.

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I don't get why Twitter was worth $44 billion dollars. It's a very lackluster social network, especially compared to Facebook. Big Lots sold for $2.5 million dollars, which to me, has much more value than website in the whole world. Big Lots has distribution centers, a flee trucks, company uniforms, etc. (Twitter has a few PHP files and a bir logo.)

You think servers, datacenters, and all the infrastructure that runs
them is free?

I think servers, data centers, and infrastructure is the long way of saying "data centers." They own their own data centers, but not $44 billion dollars worth of them.

But honestly the biggest value was the users. Active users and personal data is worth a fortune.

I did a google search, which could easily be wrong, but it says that they make about 3.4 billion per year. So I guess Elon will make his money back (or hopefully more) in 12 years. But do you think people will still use X 12 years from now?

I like Elon Musk, but I don't like X. Google says X is in 12th place for quantity of active users. Hopefully things work out, but it sounds iffy.

And I think the one language that Twitter isn't using is PHP, so swing
and a miss on that one too.

It's still a simple system with at least 11 just like it or better. The user numbers sound inflated. I don't know anyone who actively uses Twitter, and the phrase "active users" is subjective. Do they log on every day? Do they post stuff every day? Or is "active users" a way to describe "total users" in a self-flattering way?

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Hello Aaron!

13 Mar 70 23:46, you wrote to me:

I think servers, data centers, and infrastructure is the long way of saying "data centers." They own their own data centers, but not $44 billion dollars worth of them.

It is not. You can have servers without owning a datacenter, and they ain't cheap.

For example: At the place I work, 160 new servers arrived in the past week for an expansion of one of our applications (and to backfill for another)

That was a $3.5 million purchase just for the servers, and probably another $100,000 for extra drives. Plus another $100,000 for network gear to support it.

It will all fit in 5 racks, and consume approxmately 75Kilowatts (or about 82kVA)

Now, let's say Twitter's datacenters are medium to large sized. That means at least 100,000 square feet, and probably 10-20MW of power.

Basing it on the servers I deal with on a daily basis, you could pack 50,000 servers into that. At our purchase price, that's $1 billion.


Networking gear is SUPER expensive, a single firewall and/or router can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and you need multiples for redundancy.


This is a back-of-the-napkin calculation, So I could be off by quite a bit either way. This doesn't include the costs of building a datacenter or all non-server stuff that goes in it, which is easily 9 figures.

But honestly the biggest value was the users. Active users and
personal data is worth a fortune.

I did a google search, which could easily be wrong, but it says that
they make about 3.4 billion per year. So I guess Elon will make his
money back (or hopefully more) in 12 years. But do you think people
will still use X 12 years from now?

He won't. People are leaving in droves. Advertisers have bailed on Twitter, I doubt they're making enough to cover their costs at this point.

I like Elon Musk, but I don't like X. Google says X is in 12th place
for quantity of active users. Hopefully things work out, but it sounds iffy.

And I think the one language that Twitter isn't using is PHP, so
swing and a miss on that one too.

It's still a simple system with at least 11 just like it or better.

It's insanely simple if there were a few thousand people on it at the same time. At scale, it's incredibly complex. millions of users at the same time all over the world, with the ability for someone in Japan to post something and thousands of peoplen Europe can see it milliseconds later when the data has barely had time to be written into a database is akin to wizardry.

The user numbers sound inflated. I don't know anyone who actively uses Twitter, and the phrase "active users" is subjective. Do they log on
every day? Do they post stuff every day? Or is "active users" a way to describe "total users" in a self-flattering way?

the standard measurements for active users are "Daily" "Weekly" and "Monthly". Twitter at one point boasted 300 million _daily_ active users. I doubt it's anywhere near that now.

I used to use it quite often, and my feed was always full of users I had followed on purpose. When I finally gave up on it a couple months back, Very few of the people I followed had posted anything in a long time. My feed was just Elon Musk posts and people kissing his unwashed ass.

That stuff is not something I ever actively looked for in the past, and definitely not something I "liked" or engaged with. It seems to me he had the engineers tweak the algorithm so that everyone sees his tweets no matter if they follow him or not.

Seriously, the ego on that guy. sheesh.


Mike


... I figure in July I should have some time to breathe.
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Aaron Thomas wrote to Mike Powell <=-

There are some things that I don't get about X:

I don't get why Twitter was worth $44 billion dollars.

Eyeballs. Like a TV show, it's value is in how many people will see ads.

But, IHMO, the "$44 billion" was a number that was created to prevent someone from taking over the gov't's propaganda arm.

It's a very lackluster social network, especially compared to Facebook.

Not anymore. It's now the #1 news source for people.


... Success is just a matter of luck. Ask any failure.
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This is a back-of-the-napkin calculation, So I could be off by quite a
bit either way. This doesn't include the costs of building a datacenter or all non-server stuff that goes in it, which is easily 9 figures.

I'll take your word for it on the equipment costs. I just don't see the value in the functionality of the system itself, from a user's perspective.

money back (or hopefully more) in 12 years. But do you think people will still use X 12 years from now?

He won't. People are leaving in droves. Advertisers have bailed on Twitter, I doubt they're making enough to cover their costs at this
point.

I don't get Twitter (X.) I don't know anyone who uses it, and nobody has ever been able to explain to me what the point of it is. I tried it out and the purpose is not clear. You can comment on stuff, but then you can't see your
own comments. You can post something, but what for? A public platform should be seamless and fun, and shouldn't have a learning curve.

It's insanely simple if there were a few thousand people on it at the same time. At scale, it's incredibly complex. millions of users at the same time all over the world, with the ability for someone in Japan to post something and thousands of peoplen Europe can see it milliseconds later when the data has barely had time to be written into a database is akin to wizardry.

It's great, it's just that it's already been done. Now he should do something worthwhile with his little network of data centers.

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So now, regarding this TikTok deal, I don't get why Musk wouldn't just make hi
own version of it, and call it TokTicker, or something like that. Nobody needs
TikTok, and from what I can tell, Instagram offers the equivalent of TikTok an
then some, so why not just let TikTok cease to exist?

I don't understand why, either. Most TT users I know would not be at all interested in switching to/staying on a platform owned by Musk. IG is very similar but a lot of TTers complain that the algorithm it uses is not as
good, meaning they get more trolls, less positive interaction, and fewer overall followers on IG vs. TT. IG seems to be where many are going... the
TT users I know were already on IG as that is where I started following
them - I don't have TT.


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But honestly the biggest value was the users. Active users and personal data is
worth a fortune.

You may have hit the nail on the head, re: personal data. Big Lots did
have a loyality program with telephone numbers and other data, but I bet it
was a drop in the bucket compared to the data that Twitter has.


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Aaron Thomas wrote to Mike Miller <=-

I don't get Twitter (X.) I don't know anyone who uses it, and nobody
has ever been able to explain to me what the point of it is. I tried it out and the purpose is not clear. You can comment on stuff, but then
you can't see your own comments. You can post something, but what for?
A public platform should be seamless and fun, and shouldn't have a learning curve.

X certainly has a different way of doing things that takes a bit to learn.

Maybe Elon will make changes eventually. You can see your comments, but I am annoyed that they don't display as I expect them to.

IHMO: It's worth the learning curve because I get more good information there than from most other "news" site.


... My other computer is a Tandy 1100FD.
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Maybe Elon will make changes eventually. You can see your comments, but
I am annoyed that they don't display as I expect them to.

It's just not the BBS way of doing things. But with all that money they make, they're probably reluctant to change much of anything.

IHMO: It's worth the learning curve because I get more good information there than from most other "news" site.

I get a lot of news from revolver.news. They write about things that Fox doesn't. Same with www.planet-today.com (gotta have the www for that one.)

www.planet-today.com is great because they have stories coming from Europe, including Davos, from a conservative's point of view. With topics that not even revolver.news would ever touch.

Like this one:

https://www.planet-today.com/2025/01/switzerland-serbia-offer-to-host.html

Switzerland and Serbia offered to host Trump-Putin peace talks. That's something that our propaganda ministry hasn't yet decided if they want us to know about.

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