4 ms·

This honestly would take the cake for for stupidest purchase ever. I couldn't think of a way to lose money faster. Maybe they should also purchase Snapchat too.

filoleg 6y ago
> This honestly would take the cake for for stupidest purchase ever. I couldn't think of a way to lose money faster. No comment on the potential TikTok acquisition by MSFT from me, but your quote reminds me of a lot of HN comments and opinions I heard elsewhere, but regarding Zuck and his WhatsApp and Instagram acquisition. Everyone was pretty much clowning him as figuratively the dumbest man on earth who was simply lucky to make a ton of money off Facebook, who now was just throwing that money around at random acquisitions without having any idea what he was doing. A lot of people were also saying that it was all just out of desperation on his end, given that Facebook was going to die any moment soon. Six years later, most people agree that it was one of the smartest decisions he could've made. In a similar vein, think back to when MSFT acquired Minecraft.
- sushshshsh 6y ago
  I appreciate this response. I agree that there is a parallel between the virality of WhatsApp and the virality of TikTok. I also thought the WhatsApp price was high, but now in retrospect we can see that actually it was quite low, because people around the world are using whatsapp to replace the functionality of so many different websites (social, ecommerce, gaming, news, payments, etc). For TikTok however I think there are two concerns. Number one would be the political situation between USA and China. Number two would be the fact that Instagram, Snapchat, Youtube, Twitter, WeChat and so on have already captured so much of whatever there is to capture in this market. I would be surprised if TikTok became the next WhatsApp, I think it's much more likely to be the next Snapchat or Viber. If I had to buy a Chinese company, it would be Huawei. But Microsoft would find a way to kill that too.

filoleg 6y ago

> This honestly would take the cake for for stupidest purchase ever. I couldn't think of a way to lose money faster. No comment on the potential TikTok acquisition by MSFT from me, but your quote reminds me of a lot of HN comments and opinions I heard elsewhere, but regarding Zuck and his WhatsApp and Instagram acquisition. Everyone was pretty much clowning him as figuratively the dumbest man on earth who was simply lucky to make a ton of money off Facebook, who now was just throwing that money around at random acquisitions without having any idea what he was doing. A lot of people were also saying that it was all just out of desperation on his end, given that Facebook was going to die any moment soon. Six years later, most people agree that it was one of the smartest decisions he could've made. In a similar vein, think back to when MSFT acquired Minecraft.

sushshshsh 6y ago
I appreciate this response. I agree that there is a parallel between the virality of WhatsApp and the virality of TikTok. I also thought the WhatsApp price was high, but now in retrospect we can see that actually it was quite low, because people around the world are using whatsapp to replace the functionality of so many different websites (social, ecommerce, gaming, news, payments, etc). For TikTok however I think there are two concerns. Number one would be the political situation between USA and China. Number two would be the fact that Instagram, Snapchat, Youtube, Twitter, WeChat and so on have already captured so much of whatever there is to capture in this market. I would be surprised if TikTok became the next WhatsApp, I think it's much more likely to be the next Snapchat or Viber. If I had to buy a Chinese company, it would be Huawei. But Microsoft would find a way to kill that too.