One day in August four years ago, a friend on Douyin called me after drinking some wine that night.
"The boss can't be soft, just do it if it's a big deal."
I remember these ten words to this day.
I don't know if the old man inside the byte is called Zhang Yiming "boss", but I can see that this friend was slightly disappointed at the time.
Because TikTok reached a life-and-death juncture that day, no ordinary private company owner would be under such pressure. Public opinion at home and abroad has spread the news that Zhang Yiming is going to sell TikTok, and a group of hungry wolves from Microsoft, Amazon, and Oracle are eyeing it.
Opposite Boss Zhang is the aggressiveness of President Trump, the first power, and behind him is the excitement of many Chinese people, and even within Byte.
I posted on Weibo at the time
Seriously, from Zhang's point of view, it's normal to be at a loss for a while. Because unlike the mouths of netizens, only he understands that many things are not known and understood by ordinary people.
In the end, with the support of the state, TT got out of the predicament and carried it through.
So in a way, we have to thank Trump, who let us know that the so-called capitalist market economy, what wind can enter, what rain can enter, and the king can't enter without invitation is purely a joke.
The most important thing is that Zhang Yiming has been determined since then - if you do it again, then I will resolutely say no!
This time Biden shot at TT with a thunderous momentum, in fact, it was not out of Byte's expectations, the irony is that four years ago Biden did not support Guan TT, and now Trump does not support Guan TT, in short, the ass decides the head.
If you want to understand the difference between the two TT incidents, you can read my article: Why did Trump suddenly say good things about Chinese companies?
In the early hours of yesterday morning, Reuters released a scoop.
According to four TT-related insiders contacted by Reuters, TT will not hesitate to close TT's business in the United States if TT cannot lift the ban at the legal level.
One of the sources told Reuters that the algorithm to the effect that TT's algorithm is the core asset of Bytes, and that there is zero chance that the United States wants to acquire the algorithm by snatching TT.
And TT's US business only accounts for a small part of TT in terms of revenue and number of users, since we have the experience of the last time, in order to avoid the United States repeatedly tossing TT, it is better to close it directly.
In another Weibo post I posted four years ago, I was worried about the impact on their overseas interests
Four years ago, I was actually quite apprehensive myself, because TT is not just representing itself, many Chinese companies need TT as a platform for their business in the United States. But now this worry is unnecessary, in addition to other Chinese apps in the United States to kill all sides, now China's trade exports to the United States are a proper seller's market, and the United States will rely on Chinese industrial products for a long time to come.
Two days ago, Byte issued a statement on the headlines, saying that it would never sell TT, in fact, Microsoft, Amazon, and Oracle, which were ready to acquire Microsoft, Amazon, and Oracle last time, did not express interest this time, or the entire American business giant was surprisingly quiet.
Because they also know that TT's business will not sell, so it is better to die as soon as possible.
And for Byte Internals, their boss lives up to their expectations.
张一鸣,Say No。