Could you build a better TikTok?
The short-video app offers its putative American buyers a chance to rethink social-media business and governance models
“A MAINSTREAM GIANT goes countercultural.” That is how the technology press described the decision in the early 2000s by IBM, then a paragon of corporate IT, to back Linux, an obscure operating system written by a ragtag collection of activist coders. In the event, the unnatural combination wound up being a match made in computing heaven. It turned Linux into a serious rival to Microsoft’s Windows, then the dominant operating system, and justified the decentralised way that Linux had been developed. This benefited IBM and fuelled the rise of cloud computing, which is mostly powered by Linux and similar “open source” software.
This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “Reconstituted”
Business September 5th 2020
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- Can Wizz Air soar amid the pandemic?
- Can Japan Inc navigate the rift between China and America?
- What does Warren Buffett want with Japanese trading houses?
- How has humans’ relationship with work changed over millennia?
- Can India’s biggest company keep getting bigger?
- Will Beijing derail the TikTok deal?
- Could you build a better TikTok?
From the September 5th 2020 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
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The PayPal Mafia is taking over America’s government
America’s right-wing tech bros are celebrating Donald Trump’s victory
From Apple to Starbucks, Western firms’ China dreams are dying
Economic growth is slowing, competition is stiffening and geopolitical tensions loom
Not all European business is a profitless wasteland
How to spot a corporate star, old-world edition
Will Europe ease up on big tech?
The clash between Silicon Valley and Brussels enters a new phase
How to inspire people
The answer is not another video of Steve Jobs
Can teenagers outwit Australia’s social-media ban?
Enforcing the new law may prove tricky