Turner Novak’s piece also gives a shoutout to an article I wrote a year ago about how Lil Nas X used TikTok to launch his single ‘Old Town Road’ to global success.

TikTok is not just a standalone social media app, but merely one part of a huge tech holding company Bytedance that has launched dozens of successful apps across media, education, gaming, and more.īytedance’s growth is unprecedented in terms of its speed to reach scale, time spent per user, and its ability to succeed (so far) in both China and the West.īytedance has created innovative products and features that make them world leaders in mobile video, music, meme culture and the creator economy. To understand the huge potential behind not just TikTok, but the broader tech holding company Bytedance, I strongly suggest reading this piece by Turner Novak, General Partner at Gelt VC, called “ The Rise of TikTok and Understanding Its Parent Company Bytedance. As is the case for any sports rights holder, they can see the commercial potential in monetising China’s massive population of fans. Bilibili is a Youtube-like video platform in China, with 130M active users, a focus on anime and gaming culture, and the youngest audience of any Chinese social app. The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), the world’s largest combat sports organisation, recently became the first international sports organisation to launch an account on Bilibili. This has ignited a new set of protests in Hong Kong and many analysts have been predicting a new “Cold War” between the US and China.Īmidst all the anxiety this generates around our chances of global political stability, I actually look to the entertainment industry with more cultural positivity. The Chinese government has also proposed new national security legislation for Hong Kong that has been widely condemned by the US Government and several other nations. Last week, the US Senate passed ' The Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act ,' imposing new financial auditing requirements, with the primary aim of delisting Chinese companies currently on US Exchanges. There is a lot of talk about the increasing political tension between the US and China.

6ix9ine spotify meme