ByteDance may be the winner in TikTok resolution
President Trump, over the weekend, gave his blessing to an arrangement in which Oracle will become TikTok’s cloud partner and owner of 12.5% of its shares, while Walmart will own 7.5% and parent ByteDance will own the remaining 80% while the social media platform will continue to operate with no disruption. The arrangement includes TikTok contributing large sums to a national education fund, hefty tax payments as a U.S. company, and plans for an IPO in coming months. CNBC
dis-rup-shun: While ByteDance was strong-armed into this arrangement, it looks like they have now have some very solid partners, especially as Walmart found its way back into the deal after the Microsoft/Walmart alliance to acquire TikTok fell apart. The Chinese parent company now has deeper ties with U.S. investors and impressive partners. How will Walmart leverage its new investment? Will TikTok become a major advertising platform for the retailer, or will Walmart simply enjoy the returns from its major investment in social media?
iCloud is the star of the Apple One bundle
According to CNET, the most significant component of last week’s announced Apple One bundle is iCloud storage. The bundle options include Apple Music, Apple TV Plus, Apple Arcade, Apple Fitness and various amounts of iCloud storage. Despite storage being far less featured than other services, it is an increasing essentially part of people’s online lives, as the size of data files, particularly photos and videos, increases with higher resolution.
dis-rup-shun: Storage as an essential utility is becoming the cloud-based safe deposit for our lives, and Big Tech companies are battling to be the storage utility of choice, hoping this choice will bind us to a vendor for life. But Google continues to disrupt Apple, Microsoft and others by offering much easier and free apps that, at a minimum, result in consumers using multiple services and keeping Google as a part of their personal cloud mix.
What’s new about the new Apple smartwatch
Apple continues to gain more publicity surrounding its watch. So what’s new about its WatchOS7, the newest software for the device? Here is the list: native sleep tracking that does not require use of a separate sleep app; workout app recognizes more movements such as dancing; cyclists get better route planning and guidance; improved Activity App; 20-second count down for hand washing; volume monitoring to let you know when sounds are too loud or too long; wellness metric to monitor mobility and cardiovascular health; more watch face options; car key fob functionality enhancements for those that own BMWs. CNET
dis-rup-shun: Apple’s domination of the smartwatch market has been fast, but Android solutions will catch up quickly. The smartwatch, however, is quickly moving from a luxury item for gadget lovers to a more essentially device to facilitate daily routines. When your doctor requests data from your smartwatch as part of your annual checkup, and when you stop carrying car keys as your smartwatch opens your home, office and starts your cars, then will we still call these devices watches?
Alipay is global leader in mobile payments
More than 711 million Chinese have made Alipay, a digital payment app, part of their daily lives. The app, developed by Ant Group, enables people to order and pay from restaurant menus, hail taxis, and pay bills. The app collects so much data from consumers, and offers such competition to state-owned banks, that Chinese government intervention is inevitable. Meanwhile, the company is headed toward perhaps the largest IPO of 2020. Wired
dis-rup-shun: Many parts of the world, and Asia in particular, are well ahead of North Americans with regard to adopting mobile payments. In the U.S., banks have begun to enter into partnerships with Apple and Google to enable the Big Tech firms to offer financial transactions and to delay total disruption of their industry. The complete restructuring of the banking industry due to Big Tech, however, is inevitable, as the Big Tech firms with transaction data have far more information and personal data from consumers to enable them to have very accurate pictures of credit worthiness. Stay tuned for a massive transformation of banking in the next five to seven years.