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

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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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