To curb the growth of TikTok, Facebook released Lasso, a similar app targeted also at the youth market. Lasso failed miserably: it was installed only 425,000 times between November 2018 and October 2019, compared with TikTok’s 640 million times. Photo: Reuters To curb the growth of TikTok, Facebook released Lasso, a similar app targeted also at the youth market. Lasso failed miserably: it was installed only 425,000 times between November 2018 and October 2019, compared with TikTok’s 640 million times. Photo: Reuters
To curb the growth of TikTok, Facebook released Lasso, a similar app targeted also at the youth market. Lasso failed miserably: it was installed only 425,000 times between November 2018 and October 2019, compared with TikTok’s 640 million times. Photo: Reuters
Jack Hickman
Opinion

Opinion

Jack Hickman

Facebook vs TikTok: How the US is struggling to contain the outbreak of a viral Chinese app

  • TikTok’s growing popularity has sparked panic among Western companies and government policymakers
  • While Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s concerns about censorship on TikTok may be legitimate, they could also be a tactic to undermine a competitor

Jack Hickman
Jack Hickman

Updated: 9:00pm, 29 Feb, 2020

Why you can trust SCMP
To curb the growth of TikTok, Facebook released Lasso, a similar app targeted also at the youth market. Lasso failed miserably: it was installed only 425,000 times between November 2018 and October 2019, compared with TikTok’s 640 million times. Photo: Reuters To curb the growth of TikTok, Facebook released Lasso, a similar app targeted also at the youth market. Lasso failed miserably: it was installed only 425,000 times between November 2018 and October 2019, compared with TikTok’s 640 million times. Photo: Reuters
To curb the growth of TikTok, Facebook released Lasso, a similar app targeted also at the youth market. Lasso failed miserably: it was installed only 425,000 times between November 2018 and October 2019, compared with TikTok’s 640 million times. Photo: Reuters
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Jack Hickman

Jack Hickman

Jack Hickman is a British journalist who has interviewed North Korean border guards, filmed the notorious Taiwanese Dog King and gone undercover to report from sealed off Buddhist Institutes. He learnt Mandarin while selling tudou in a Beijing hutong and is committed to building a bridge of understanding between the East and West