TikTok Boom

Description

How a Chinese social network challenges US technological hegemony

TikTok's success is not greater than the controversies surrounding it. With suspicions about security and privacy issues, it was banned in India. Donald Trump, when he was president of the United States, considered this platform a threat to national security. But, after all, what made the application go beyond social media status and become the subject of political disputes between countries?

In TikTok Boom, journalist Chris Stokel-Walker goes behind the scenes at TikTok's Chinese owner, ByteDance, whose ambition is to reach the level of North American technology giants like Google. By collecting unprecedented information about the functioning of this new ecosystem of influencers, the author elucidates the sociopolitical context that transformed the application into a clash between today's two greatest powers: China and the United States.

Thus, the dance for power gains a new choreography, and whoever dictates the rhythm is an innovation from the East. But should the West be worried about the possible collapse of the American technological empire? Without ever losing sight of this question, journalist Chris Stokel-Walker unpacks TikTok Boom the business mentality and the history of the creation of the Chinese platform that gave rise to the most addictive app of our time.

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