Microsoft’s Solitaire might compete, being bundled with windows itself.

Maybe old Netscape folks shouldn't feel so bad.

Microsoft even did it to the Soviet Union. And they got away with it that time! ;-P

But Tetris ran on IBM mainframes also, on character-cell displays.

One could say similar things about the differences between tiktok algorithms in the US vs China.

The Information had an interview of the founders back when it was called Musical.ly. When asked why the service was not available in China itself, they responded "Oh no, Chinese kids must study".

That makes no sense. Musical.ly most definitely was available in China.

The article is from 2016:

https://www.theinformation.com/articles/chinese-startups-to-...

Musical.ly

Co-Founders and Co-CEOs: Alex Zhu and Louis Yang

Money raised/valuation: Approximately $100 million in total/valuation unknown

Investors: Greylock Partners, GGV Capital, Qiming Venture Partners

Why they made the list:

Most people using Musical.ly—many are American teens—don’t even know the app is built in China. The app allows users to create 15-second music videos of themselves lip syncing and dancing to pop songs. Musical.ly now has 85 million users worldwide, with 10 million daily active users, and has been consistently in the top ranks for photo and video apps in the U.S. and Europe. Greylock partner Josh Elman, a Musical.ly investor, called it “the next phenomenon in the media industry since Snapchat.”

Musical.ly stands out as the first Chinese company that only targets customers who don’t live in China. The app does not even have a Chinese-language version. Over half of its users—called “musers”—are in the U.S., with another 35% from Europe, according to co-founder Alex Zhu, who is from China but has worked in Silicon Valley.

Musical.ly is trying what Mr. Zhu calls “user-generated ads.” Last month, the company started an advertising campaign for Coca-Cola, where users film their own Coke-related videos. It is also experimenting with virtual gifts on its new product, the live stream app Live.ly. “Our vision for Musical.ly is to make it a YouTube on mobile,” Mr. Zhu said. The Shanghai-based company has no immediate plans to enter the Chinese market. Mr. Zhu points out that teens in China are usually too busy with academic work to have time to generate content.

As long as you don't care about the duty cycle concept, and the value of human expression, everything on TikTok looks like a silly waste of time. A lot of tech content included.

Fortunately the Party sees humans as cogs in a perpetual motion machine, so their machinery will break down soon, moreso the more they FakeTok...