December 16, 2025 • 32 mins
What is a conspiracy theory, and why have they become so common? To find the answer, we tell the story of how TikTok was pushed to the brink of banishment in America. There are many theories for the attacks on the social media behemoth – some are wild, others not so much. But a deep dive into this topic goes a long way into understanding the true nature of a conspiracy theory…and why they’ve spread like wildfire.
Support the show: https://redpilledamerica.com/support/
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
This is Red Pilled America. So, Adriana, do you ever
use TikTok?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
You know what, I didn't used to, but very recently
I've actually started sharing my Adriana Jade influencer stuff on TikTok.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Well, are you worried that China's tracking you every move?
Speaker 2 (00:19):
No, because everybody's already tracking my every move. What they're
called a big brother.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Well, this week we are talking about the company TikTok.
We go into a very interesting story behind the origin
of TikTok. This is on Red Pilled America. Thank you
guys so much for joining us, and please help us
beat the big tech algorithm by going to wherever you
listen to the podcast, giving us a five star rating
and leading a comment. It really helps us beat that
(00:48):
big tech algorithm. Also, if you want to get our
show ad free, become a backstage subscriber.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Go to red Pilled America dot com and join in
the top menu. Lastly, please don't forget to support our sponsors.
If you hear something that you love, that's it.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Now on with the show. This series was originally broadcast
in August twenty twenty four. It's hard to deny that
there's been a growth in conspiracy theories. The media often
dismisses them as fake news, pushed by tin hat wearing weirdos.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Doctor Anthony Fauci is shooting down theories that the coronavirus
was man made.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
But oddly, conspiracy theories, once thought to be fringe, often
turn out to be not so fringy.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
So how did we get here?
Speaker 5 (01:37):
With America's most prominent public health expert saying that the
lab leak theory, which was previously hawked by conspiracy theorists,
might actually be credible.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
And it's not always the outcasts promoting conspiracy theories. Sometimes
they come directly from the establishment. With the spread of
conspiracy theories seeming to come from all angles, it begs
the question, what is a conspiracy theory? I'm Patrick Carelci.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
And I'm Adriana Cortes, and this.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Is Red Pilled America, a storytelling show.
Speaker 6 (02:09):
This is not.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Another talk show covering the day's news. We're all about
telling stories.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Stories. Hollywood doesn't want you to hear stories.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
The media mocks stories about everyday Americans at the Globalist Ignore.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
You can think of Red Pilled America as audio documentaries,
and we promise only one thing, the truth. Welcome to
red Pilled America. What is a conspiracy theory and why
(02:45):
have they become so common? To find the answer, we're
going to tell the story of how TikTok was pushed
to the brink of banishment in America. There are many
theories for the attacks on the social media behemoth. Some
are wild, others not so much. But a deep dive
into this topic goes a long way into understanding the
true nature of a conspiracy theory and why they've spread
(03:06):
like wildfire.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
It was mid March twenty twenty four when the US
House of Representatives took a monumental step. It voted on
a bill forcing a private social media company to break
away from its parent company or face a US ban.
Speaker 5 (03:23):
On this vote, the Ya's are three hundred and fifty two,
the nays are sixty five one. At present, two thirds
being in the affirmative, the rules are suspended. The bill
has passed.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
For over four years, US politicians have been debating whether
to block the social media behemoths TikTok from the US market.
At one point, President Trump even signed an executive order
calling for TikTok to divest from its parent company or
be pushed out of the country.
Speaker 7 (03:52):
It can't be controlled for security reasons by China two
big two invasive, and it can't be I don't mind
if whether it's Microsoft or so somebody else. A big company,
a secure company, very very American company.
Speaker 8 (04:07):
By it.
Speaker 7 (04:08):
We set a date. I set a date of around
September fifteenth, at which point it's going to be out
of business in the United States.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
But then, shortly after entering the White House in twenty
twenty one, President Biden reversed his predecessor's order. TikTok lived
to fight another day. By March twenty twenty four, it
appeared every effort to take down TikTok had failed. But now,
with the House overwhelmingly voting in favor of a divest
or band bill, the app it had become the favorite
(04:37):
among America's youth based an existential crisis, and this time
Biden wasn't coming to its rescue.
Speaker 5 (04:44):
Do you built the thud Bannon Club? If you sign
that bill.
Speaker 9 (04:48):
If I pass it, all fire?
Speaker 2 (04:50):
The House vote unleashed a hot debate over the issue.
Speaker 8 (04:54):
This is about national security. This is not a ban.
We're just saying that by dance, the parent company of
TikTok that is owned by the Chinese Communist Party. They
must avest themselves of this, and the bill specifically says
adversarial countries.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
I'm not saying that this law is going to be great,
but you'd have to be extremely naive to assume that
there is nothing bad going on here with this app
It is inconceivable to me that our voice signatures aren't
being mapped, and there isn't a massive sort of file
and repository that is understanding what we're all saying.
Speaker 10 (05:32):
The bill poses a significant risk of being Patriot Act
two point zero. With the Patriot Act, they ended up
spying on Americans. There's no way to argue that this
language isn't vague and could invite abuse. So it gives huge,
i think, new powers to the executive branch to pursue
political opponents and political enemies.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
I could see it being forty to ten if it's ideological,
I could be seeing it thirty five to fifteen, forty
eight to two. It was fifty to zero.
Speaker 10 (06:01):
So what's the Patriot Act? Look, there's old saying in
Washington that the worst ideas are bipartisan. I've already shown
you how The language of the bill is overly brought.
It's not just a TikTok ban. It says that any
app or website. Did you know that any app or
website domestically that subject subject to the direction of a
(06:23):
foreigner from one of these countries.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
Four countries North Korea, Russia, China.
Speaker 10 (06:27):
I said, a foreigner from one of those countries. Yeah,
I try to say it clear for the audience. All
you got to do is make that argument. If you're
an age who wants to go after one of our
domestic platforms, that's all you got to do to bring
them under your thumb.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Many TikTokers, like Kimberly Pew were outraged by the development
and took to the social media app to vent their frustrations.
Speaker 11 (06:56):
Literally, so many people are so out of touch with
what TikTok actually is, because this isn't a silly little
app where we watch dances. For small businesses that survive
based off of this app. There are people who are
just your normal everyday hate people like myself who have
been a stay at home mom who's finally able to
do something where I post videos and make money off
(07:17):
of that, or I promote products from TikTok shop where
I can actually bring in a significant amount of money
to help provide for my family, work my butt off
doing it, but everyone sees it as just a silly
little app You are so out of touch. So is
our Congress, so is all of our government. They have
one track mind, and that's to control everybody.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
After a couple of weeks, the fervor cooled down, and,
like often happens in Washington, d C. It looked as
if the bill was going to stall. But then in
late April twenty twenty four, with the bill attached to
a foreign aid package to Ukraine and Israel, the TikTok
divest or Be Banded Bill easily passed in the Senate.
Speaker 12 (07:58):
On this vote, the Ya's are eighty, the knees are
named team three fifths of the Senators duly chosen and
sworn having voted in the affirmative, the motion is agreed to.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
It was an unprecedented move. For the first time ever,
the US government took a direct action that could lead
to the takedown of a major social media platform with
a massive user base in America, and if anything was clear,
TikTok wasn't going to.
Speaker 13 (08:26):
Just roll over that bill, basically just widening the President's
of sent Now it's all but set and the scene
now set for a legal battle. It seems how long
could that drag on for and what does it mean
for a The bite around the First.
Speaker 14 (08:39):
Amendment that's already promises that the company will file lawsuits
trying to overturn this law on saying that it's unconstitutional
and violating the First Amendment right to free speech. But
the lawmakers say that they're they're very confident they'll prevail.
There's no right to free speech for a Chinese company,
(09:02):
and so the argument is that this is very similar
to regulations, but the government has on who can own
broadcast stations, for example, or radio stations.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
After passage of the bill, President Biden gave a short speech.
Speaker 9 (09:18):
I just signed in the law of the National Security
Packages that was passed by the House representatives this weekend
and by the Senate yesterday.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
But in his prepared remarks Biden never mentioned TikTok, which
seemed to surprise the media in the room.
Speaker 9 (09:32):
I thank you all very much, and now I'm going
off to make a speech at the hotel. I'm laid
for and plenty of time to answer questions on this
another matter, and I have a quick one on TikTok.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Or how could Biden give an over ten minute speech
about a bill that could lead to the ban of
one of the most popular social media platforms in America
and not include one mention of it in his remarks.
It was as if his decision was so unpopular he
wanted to quietly slip that part of the legislation under
(10:01):
the rug. The entire dev development was shocking to most
free speech advocates. A social media platform with one hundred
and seventy million US users now faced a full band
from America if it did not break away from its
parent company by dance. The motives for this action were
hard to decipher. People wondered why and how this could
(10:22):
be happening, and in the absence of good answers, some
on both sides of the aisle began to fill the
void with conspiracy theories. The CCP is using TikTok as
a spyware tool on Americans.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
They're weaponizing our kids. They have spread misinformation.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
You know, if you want to talk about not giving
into Jewish conspiracies.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
John Green Black getting caught on the ADL and the
hot mic talking about how he's going to we got
to get rid of TikTok and.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Then tomorrow it gets passed through Congress.
Speaker 6 (10:48):
Isn't good.
Speaker 12 (10:48):
Why are we banning TikTok all the Chinese comedy Chinese
commedy scom.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Government doesn't own it, Chinese citizens own it.
Speaker 12 (10:55):
Do you think they it's because they really care about
national security?
Speaker 3 (10:59):
I don't believe it at all.
Speaker 12 (11:01):
Here's what I believe, the social media players, including Facebook,
giving them tons of money to ban TikTok.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
The theories were elaborate, backed by passion and some facts,
but they were all wrong, at least partially. To understand
what led TikTok to this crisis, we must first go
back to the birth of its parent company and learn
about the enemies it gained along the way.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Life can be pretty stressful these days. You want to
know what makes me feel better? Licorice from the licorice Guy.
Call me crazy, but it's true because I love licorice.
Longtime listeners of reread Pilled America know that licorice is
my absolute favorite candy and the very best liquorice, hands down,
comes from the licorice Guy. I know licorice and it
(11:50):
doesn't get any better than this. What truly sets it
apart is its flavor and its freshness. The softness of
this licorice will blow your mind. I've never had anything
like it. The Licorice Guy offers jumbo gourmet licorice in
nostalgic seasonal flavors a red, blue, raspberry, cinnamon, watermelon, black,
and apple. Trust me, they are all delicious. What I
also love about the Liquorice Guy is that it's an
(12:13):
American family owned business. And you all know that I'm
a big proponent of supporting American companies. Right now, Red
Pilled America listeners get fifteen percent off when you enter
RPA fifteen at checkout. Visit licoricegui dot com and enter
RPA fifteen at checkout. That's licoricegui dot com. They ship daily,
treat yourself and those you love, and taste the difference.
(12:37):
Welcome back to Red Pilled America. In twenty twelve, a
software engineer named Jiong Yiming rented a four bedroom apartment
in Beijing, China. The short, shy Chinese citizen had been
an entrepreneur for about three years, but he hadn't yet
landed on the idea that would put him on the map.
But from this nondescript apartment in a technology hub of
(13:00):
a fast growing nation, Yiming would launch one of the
most disruptive technology companies in history. The location would become
the headquarters of an app company he called byte Dance
and would eventually become the largest privately held social media
organization in the world, and its success can be attributed
to Yiming's unique mind. Xiong Yiming was born in nineteen
eighty three and grew up in the lung Yen Fujiya
(13:22):
Province of China, a southwestern province about an hour and
a half drive from Xiamen, a coastal city that overlooks Taiwan.
The only child of two civil servants, Yiming grew up
in a middle class family. He's been able to keep
most of his early life private, an interesting fact given
the company he'd eventually developed. But what we do know
for sure is that Yiming grew up at a time
(13:44):
of profound cultural change in China. A few years before
he was born, in nineteen seventy eight, the country's leader,
Dung Chiaopeng, initiated a policy that would come to be
known as reform and opening up. This was a pivotal
period in the history of the Red Dragon. It marked
a shift from the strictly planned familiar to most communist
governments of the time to the more market oriented version
(14:07):
that we know today. A new capitalism without freedom was
born as a result of this policy. Jiung Yiming grew
up in a wholly new era, one where innovation and
the entrepreneurial spirit were encouraged throughout the country. Economic opportunities
were expanding, especially in the coastal and urban areas of China,
and Yiming would eventually want in on the action. By
(14:29):
the two thousands, China had fully embraced the digital revolution
happening all over the world. The government encouraged the development
of a technology sector, building tech hubs in places like Beijing.
Yiming wanted to be part of this digital revolution, so
he enrolled at Nankai University, a public college in north
China on the eastern shore of the Bohai Sea. Yiming
(14:51):
was a bit awkward socially. One colleague would later describe
his awkwardness.
Speaker 14 (14:56):
Una I remember once during a chat, I couldn't help
but say no Jiming, you're really bad at talking.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Compensate for his lack of in person social skills, he
turned online. That's what will be off, wah say.
Speaker 15 (15:08):
I was quite active on several BBS technical forms at
the time, like the web design section, et cetera.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
That's Jong Yiming in twenty sixteen, speaking on a Chinese
television show.
Speaker 15 (15:18):
My tech skills were good. I was good at fixing
computers that others couldn't fix.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
He'd help classmates make repairs and assemble their computers. As
a result, he'd often find himself helping females with their computers,
including one for a girl that would become his wife.
Yiming also began to develop a reputation about his character,
as a colleague would later highlight.
Speaker 11 (15:38):
A dice h but I think Yi Ming is really
someone who when he says something, it's exactly what it is.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
Everything he says is exactly as he says it.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
People saw him as direct, with no fluff to his words.
In addition to being the university's de facto computer repair man,
Yiming also became a voracious reader. While other college students
were playing video games, he'd devour not only books on
computer programming, but also the biographies of tech icons, and
he became fascinated by the tech titans of America. It
(16:08):
was these biographies that planted a seed in his mind.
He learned that some of the most successful entrepreneurs started
off as ordinary people living simple lives. Their initial actions
looked small, even insignificant, but each incremental step would ultimately
build into one major success. Yeeming started to believe that
his simple life could also amount to something much more profound.
(16:32):
He reflected on this time in a twenty seventeen interview
with Bloomberg.
Speaker 16 (16:36):
But I read quite a lot of story about bier
Gay while I was young, and Steve Jobs and What's Nick.
While I graduated graduate from a university, I paid quite
a lot of attention to Amazon and Facebook.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
He graduated with a degree in software engineering in two
thousand and five and began bouncing around to different tech firms.
He worked at a travel search engine and quickly became
the technical director. He spent a short at a microblogging site,
then at Microsoft. But through these experiences he learned something
about himself. Iming found the corporate work environment too boring
(17:12):
and bureaucratic. By two thousand and nine, Yming wanted to
go out on his own, and an idea began to brew.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
A long time ago.
Speaker 15 (17:20):
I was thinking that when we watch TV, the programs
that are shown to me are often not the ones
I'm directly interested in. I wish there was a channel
where I could see content that interests me every time
I turn it on.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
For example, in the morning, I'd like to hear about.
Speaker 15 (17:34):
Startup company news and what new Internet products have been
launched internationally. During dinner, I'd like to hear about Internet
business models, and when I turn it on during the day,
I want to hear about the latest Internet technologies.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
But there was no such Internet platform.
Speaker 15 (17:50):
If you rely on people to choose the content, it's
impossible to give everyone different content unless you have one
on one service where everyone has their own editor. So
to achieve this goal, it could only be done by machines.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Idea of a recommendation engine driven by artificial intelligence began
to consume his mind, but he hadn't yet landed on
an application. In two thousand and nine, he collaborated with
a friend to co found a real estate search engine,
but three years later he dumped that business to apply
the idea that had been percolating in his head as
(18:23):
early as two thousand and six. Yi Ming began closely
monitoring his American doppelganger, Mark Zuckerberg and the rise of
his social media network Facebook. Like Zuckerberg, Yiming was socially
awkward but ambitious, and also like the Facebook founder, Yiming
found personal social success in the virtual world of online forums.
By twenty twelve, a once in a lifetime opportunity presented
(18:46):
itself to the budding entrepreneur. That was a pivotal year
for China's technology industry. For the first time ever, mobile
Internet users outnumbered personal computer Internet users as the largest
group online. China's Internet users had swelled to five hundred
(19:06):
and thirty eight million, but of those, mobile Internet users
amounted to roughly three hundred eighty eight million. The smartphone
war and the arrival of the four G era kicked
off a mobile start up boom, and to top it off,
the Chinese Internet was shifting away from the infrastructure used
globally and instead began developing mobile internet products designed specifically
(19:28):
for Chinese users. It was in this mobile epoch that
Jiung Yiming, along with a friend, launched byte Dance from
that four bedroom apartment in Beijing, and the timing couldn't
have been better. Yiming saw a glitch in the approach
of the major Chinese tech firms of the time, a
glitch that he knew his brewing idea could exploit. What
he noticed was that the Chinese tech giants had become
(19:51):
a victim of their own success. They'd gotten big and bloated,
often delivering irrelevant content and advertising to their users. Yiming
recognized that it was the perfect time to hit the
industry by bringing his disruptive idea for a recommendation engine
to China. He described this moment in a twenty sixteen interview.
Speaker 15 (20:24):
If we look back when the Internet first appeared, there
was very little information. Sites like Yahoo and so who
were directory sites listing websites. As more information became available,
site directories weren't enough, so content directories emerged. Then, as
information increased even more, browsing directories became insufficient and search
engines appeared. After search engines, we found that information needed
(20:46):
to be spread among acquaintances, leading to social networks. After that,
we found that, besides social connections and geographic location, information
also needed to be more personalized. Considering not just circles,
but also interests.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
It was a perfect time to launch his recommendations engine.
The first app he created focused on sharing jokes, memes,
and humorous content. It was with this app that Yiming
began to develop his idea for a recommendation algorithm. He
learned what the users liked, how they swiped, what made
them click, what didn't grab their attention. The app did
(21:21):
well and quickly acquired downloads, but it was his next
app that would get the attention of China's massive technology cartel.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
After testing his recommendation engine on the humor app, Yiming
thought it was time to bring his idea for a
customized news channel to life in the form of an app.
He called it to Tiao, meaning headline. It was similar
to today's Google News or Facebook's newsfeed, and he used
the recommendation algorithm he was developing to deliver niche news
(21:50):
that would have historically never made it into a newspaper.
Throughout history, newspapers have typically had to focus on headline
news it appealed to a broad audience. Newspapers couldn't individually
tailor each copy of the news newspaper to the likes
and dislikes to be treader, so nich stories, if they
got printed at all, often got left to the gaps
of newspaper or areas buried deep within the paper. Yimen's
(22:13):
idea could shift those niche stories to a headline by
finding the exact readers that would consider that story important,
no matter how small the group. Yuman would later explain
his disruptive idea on a twenty sixteen Chinese TV show
What Jiga.
Speaker 15 (22:28):
Let me give an example of a very small category
of information, the kind that could only be printed in
the gaps of newspapers in the past.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
It couldn't make the headlines.
Speaker 15 (22:36):
Let's take a gap filling piece of information, the kind
called missing persons notices TA. Often, when someone goes missing,
they contact the newspaper and the paper prints it in
the gap the next day.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Why can't it be.
Speaker 15 (22:48):
The headline because there are many important news items in
the headline section, and this isn't a paid advertisement, so
it can only be placed in the gap. But when
it's printed in a gap the next day, the chances
of finding the person are very very low.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Right, So we had the idea of pushing the missing person's.
Speaker 15 (23:03):
Information immediately to users within the geographical range where the
person might have gone missing, then you'd have a much
better chance of finding the person. We applied this personalized,
precise recommendation to the small category of missing persons notices
and found that it.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
Was particularly effective. To date, we've helped find over five
hundred people through our information.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
The Totiao app was delivering niche information to disregarded or
overlooked groups. The major newspapers were focused on the top
tier cities. Their content focused on the issues white collar
elites cared about. That rule, users interested in pig farming
or beekeeping couldn't find a news source that would give
them the latest information on their fields of interest. That's
(23:45):
where Totiao came in to fill the gap. Totiao was
not a traditional news app. It didn't produce content, It
had no editors. Over one third of the staff were engineers.
It had no stance on the issues of the day.
At its core, it was an algorithm that focused on
finding the individual in of each of its users by
following each action users took on Totiao, calculating their preferences,
(24:09):
then delivering them news they'd most likely find interesting. Yimin
was building an extraordinarily powerful recommendation engine that was getting
smarter and smarter as people used as app, and did
the Chinese people love it. By twenty fourteen, Totiau had
more than ninety million users. By twenty sixteen, the user
base swelled to five hundred and fifty million, And it
(24:32):
was this success that led to his first major crisis.
Do you want to hear red Pilled America stories ad free?
(24:53):
Then become a backstage subscriber. Just log onto Redpilled America
dot com and click join in the top menu. Join
today and help us save America one story at a time.
Welcome back to Redfield America. So just as Totio exploded
in popularity, its founder, Jean Yi Mien, faced his first
major crisis. Traditional media companies and Internet portals began suing
(25:17):
Totiau for copyright infringement. You see, many of these companies
hadn't yet made the shift to mobile. When Totiao combed
the Internet to find relevant news for its users, it
would often convert these media companies information into a mobile
friendly format. For this act, some of the media companies
accused Totiau of theft, so Yiming had to make a
(25:40):
shift and fast. He worked with the media companies to
create a revenue sharing model, and the crisis led to
an unexpected innovation. As Totiao was growing, Yemen began to
see a trend developing. A new creator economy was forming.
In twenty fifteen, He explained how he began to see
this new movement taking shape when one of his best
(26:02):
workers gave note.
Speaker 15 (26:04):
One day he told me Yieming, I'm quitting content management
to start my.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
Own new media business.
Speaker 15 (26:09):
He realized that telling ordinary people's stories in new media
was underdeveloped, even though there are many readers, so he
started a Tucao account called Tank. He was willing to
give up a high salary in stock options to create
his own new media company.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Yieming noticed that people were writing niche stories and would
try to monetize them. Stay at home moms wrote about
breastfeeding and turned the ads on that page to extra
grocery money. Other product enthusiasts turned their love for brands
into extra cash via advertising. While traditional media companies were faltering,
Yiming was seeing creators innovate to create niche audiences.
Speaker 15 (26:46):
Given all these circumstances, it's clear that we are in
an era of massive change. It is indeed the worst
of times, but it's also the best of times, and
it's just beginning. I truly believe that the era of
creators has begun, or rather, we are on the eve
of a content explosion.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Yiming saw a unique opportunity to take advantage of this
growing creator economy, and he began to change his business
model to financially incentivize news content creators to produce content
for to Tiao Wells wants.
Speaker 15 (27:21):
In the next twelve months, Tutiao aims to ensure that
at least ten thousand creators earn a substantial incode. Why
are we doing this? This brings us to Tutiao's dream.
Tutio's dream is to become the world's largest Chinese content
creation platform, and if possible, we would like to remove
the word Chinese.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
What Yieming was describing was a bold goal, unheard of
at the time. He didn't just have ambitious goals within China.
He wanted his company to become the world's largest content
creation platform. And in many ways, his goal wasn't just
an offensive move, it was a defensive one as well.
You see the growth of Yiming's recommendation algorithm was so
(27:58):
explosively disruptive in China that it actually became dangerous to business.
At the time, the China technology industry was cutthroat and
was dominated by three major firms known as Bat or
by Deu, Ali Baba, and Tencent. By Deu was the
Google of China, Ali Baba was the equivalent of Amazon,
(28:20):
and Tencent was similar to Facebook or Meta. These three
media companies would either buy or crush tech startups that
crept into their territories. The explosive growth of Yiming's Totiao
started to creep into the Bat firm's realm, and he
knew that they'd soon come knocking. But as he'd already
learned in the years after college, he didn't like the big,
(28:41):
bureaucratic nature of the major tech firms. Yiming didn't want
to work for someone else, so he had to come
up with a way to bypass these behemoths to grow
and survive. This was an obstacle almost every Chinese tech
entrepreneur could see on Yiming's horizon, and in one instance,
during the broadcast of a Chinese entrepreneurial TV show called Dialogue,
(29:02):
the man behind to TiO, an e commerce entrepreneur, offered
Yiming some advice.
Speaker 17 (29:08):
Who was It's signed.
Speaker 18 (29:08):
If I were young Yieming, I'd be more aggressive in
pursuing globalization. Compared to the previous generation of Internet entrepreneurs,
we have a broader global perspective and greater opportunities for globalization.
From a value creation standpoint, leading Chinese information and products
abroad also creates value for both bat and the entire country.
When your company is globally positioned and you bring global
(29:31):
resources back to China, you'll likely be in a more
relaxed position. Yes, the world is so big, I want
everyone to see.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Tutiao Yeming no doubt saw the building storm. So to
survive an attack by the Big Three, Yiming needed a
business model that reached into a larger pool. He knew
very early on that he needed to go global, and
as expected, by twenty sixteen, one of the Big three,
ten Cent the Facebook of China, began to apply the pressure.
(29:59):
They sent word to Yiming that they wanted to buy
his company, Byte Dance.
Speaker 15 (30:12):
When I heard about this news, a colleague asked me
about it. He told me I didn't join tucow to
become a ten cent employee. I responded that I didn't
start tou Chow to become a ten cent employee either,
But that doesn't mean we have any.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
Issues with ten cents cooperation or competition.
Speaker 15 (30:25):
I just want to express that we hope to become
a platform company that brings significant value and meaning to
society on our own.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
The host of the TV show saw trouble in the
entrepreneur's position and pressed, ye mean on the issue?
Speaker 1 (30:46):
Are you worried that your attitude or statements might upset
any of the bat companies.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
I think they're all smart enough not to get angry
over this.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
That ye mean could see the writing on the wall.
A rejection of the ten cent offer meant he was
now going to become a target. So in twenty sixteen
announced a new venture. He was going to invest roughly
one hundred and fifty million dollars to develop a short
video platform he'd call the app dough in. The logo
was a lowercase letter D made into a musical note,
(31:17):
and it would quickly grow to become the global social
media behemoth that would eventually be targeted for banishment by
the US government.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Coming up on red pilled America.
Speaker 17 (31:27):
It was Donald Trump's first rally in four months as
the US president campaigns for reelection. Hundreds of thousands registered
for tickets online, bout the nineteen thousand seat capacity stadium
in Oklahoma was less than half fulls and its TikTok
users who oppose Donald Trump who are claiming credit for
(31:47):
the low turnout.
Speaker 5 (31:48):
Would you recommend that people download that up on their
phones tonight, tomorrow, anytime, currently.
Speaker 12 (31:55):
Only if you want your private information in the hands
of the Chinese Communist Party.
Speaker 6 (31:58):
So it's almost like they recognized that technologies influencing kids development,
and they make their domestic version a spinach version of TikTok,
while they've shipped the opium version to the rest of
the world.
Speaker 10 (32:11):
And this TikTok fear that's somehow what videos we like
is like precious data that's being shared with the CCP. Look,
I'm willing to believe it's possible, but they never proved that.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
Red Pilled America is an iHeartRadio original podcast. It's owned
and produced by Patrick Carrelci and me Adriana Cortez for
Informed Ventures. Now you can get ad free access to
our entire catalog of episodes by becoming a backstage subscriber.
To subscribe, just visit redpilled America dot com and could
join in the topmenu. Thanks for listening.
This is Red Pilled America. So, Adriana, do you ever
use TikTok?
Speaker 2 (00:09):
You know what, I didn't used to, but very recently
I've actually started sharing my Adriana Jade influencer stuff on TikTok.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Well, are you worried that China's tracking you every move?
Speaker 2 (00:19):
No, because everybody's already tracking my every move. What they're
called a big brother.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Well, this week we are talking about the company TikTok.
We go into a very interesting story behind the origin
of TikTok. This is on Red Pilled America. Thank you
guys so much for joining us, and please help us
beat the big tech algorithm by going to wherever you
listen to the podcast, giving us a five star rating
and leading a comment. It really helps us beat that
(00:48):
big tech algorithm. Also, if you want to get our
show ad free, become a backstage subscriber.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Go to red Pilled America dot com and join in
the top menu. Lastly, please don't forget to support our sponsors.
If you hear something that you love, that's it.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Now on with the show. This series was originally broadcast
in August twenty twenty four. It's hard to deny that
there's been a growth in conspiracy theories. The media often
dismisses them as fake news, pushed by tin hat wearing weirdos.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Doctor Anthony Fauci is shooting down theories that the coronavirus
was man made.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
But oddly, conspiracy theories, once thought to be fringe, often
turn out to be not so fringy.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
So how did we get here?
Speaker 5 (01:37):
With America's most prominent public health expert saying that the
lab leak theory, which was previously hawked by conspiracy theorists,
might actually be credible.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
And it's not always the outcasts promoting conspiracy theories. Sometimes
they come directly from the establishment. With the spread of
conspiracy theories seeming to come from all angles, it begs
the question, what is a conspiracy theory? I'm Patrick Carelci.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
And I'm Adriana Cortes, and this.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
Is Red Pilled America, a storytelling show.
Speaker 6 (02:09):
This is not.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Another talk show covering the day's news. We're all about
telling stories.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Stories. Hollywood doesn't want you to hear stories.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
The media mocks stories about everyday Americans at the Globalist Ignore.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
You can think of Red Pilled America as audio documentaries,
and we promise only one thing, the truth. Welcome to
red Pilled America. What is a conspiracy theory and why
(02:45):
have they become so common? To find the answer, we're
going to tell the story of how TikTok was pushed
to the brink of banishment in America. There are many
theories for the attacks on the social media behemoth. Some
are wild, others not so much. But a deep dive
into this topic goes a long way into understanding the
true nature of a conspiracy theory and why they've spread
(03:06):
like wildfire.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
It was mid March twenty twenty four when the US
House of Representatives took a monumental step. It voted on
a bill forcing a private social media company to break
away from its parent company or face a US ban.
Speaker 5 (03:23):
On this vote, the Ya's are three hundred and fifty two,
the nays are sixty five one. At present, two thirds
being in the affirmative, the rules are suspended. The bill
has passed.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
For over four years, US politicians have been debating whether
to block the social media behemoths TikTok from the US market.
At one point, President Trump even signed an executive order
calling for TikTok to divest from its parent company or
be pushed out of the country.
Speaker 7 (03:52):
It can't be controlled for security reasons by China two
big two invasive, and it can't be I don't mind
if whether it's Microsoft or so somebody else. A big company,
a secure company, very very American company.
Speaker 8 (04:07):
By it.
Speaker 7 (04:08):
We set a date. I set a date of around
September fifteenth, at which point it's going to be out
of business in the United States.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
But then, shortly after entering the White House in twenty
twenty one, President Biden reversed his predecessor's order. TikTok lived
to fight another day. By March twenty twenty four, it
appeared every effort to take down TikTok had failed. But now,
with the House overwhelmingly voting in favor of a divest
or band bill, the app it had become the favorite
(04:37):
among America's youth based an existential crisis, and this time
Biden wasn't coming to its rescue.
Speaker 5 (04:44):
Do you built the thud Bannon Club? If you sign
that bill.
Speaker 9 (04:48):
If I pass it, all fire?
Speaker 2 (04:50):
The House vote unleashed a hot debate over the issue.
Speaker 8 (04:54):
This is about national security. This is not a ban.
We're just saying that by dance, the parent company of
TikTok that is owned by the Chinese Communist Party. They
must avest themselves of this, and the bill specifically says
adversarial countries.
Speaker 4 (05:11):
I'm not saying that this law is going to be great,
but you'd have to be extremely naive to assume that
there is nothing bad going on here with this app
It is inconceivable to me that our voice signatures aren't
being mapped, and there isn't a massive sort of file
and repository that is understanding what we're all saying.
Speaker 10 (05:32):
The bill poses a significant risk of being Patriot Act
two point zero. With the Patriot Act, they ended up
spying on Americans. There's no way to argue that this
language isn't vague and could invite abuse. So it gives huge,
i think, new powers to the executive branch to pursue
political opponents and political enemies.
Speaker 4 (05:53):
I could see it being forty to ten if it's ideological,
I could be seeing it thirty five to fifteen, forty
eight to two. It was fifty to zero.
Speaker 10 (06:01):
So what's the Patriot Act? Look, there's old saying in
Washington that the worst ideas are bipartisan. I've already shown
you how The language of the bill is overly brought.
It's not just a TikTok ban. It says that any
app or website. Did you know that any app or
website domestically that subject subject to the direction of a
(06:23):
foreigner from one of these countries.
Speaker 4 (06:25):
Four countries North Korea, Russia, China.
Speaker 10 (06:27):
I said, a foreigner from one of those countries. Yeah,
I try to say it clear for the audience. All
you got to do is make that argument. If you're
an age who wants to go after one of our
domestic platforms, that's all you got to do to bring
them under your thumb.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Many TikTokers, like Kimberly Pew were outraged by the development
and took to the social media app to vent their frustrations.
Speaker 11 (06:56):
Literally, so many people are so out of touch with
what TikTok actually is, because this isn't a silly little
app where we watch dances. For small businesses that survive
based off of this app. There are people who are
just your normal everyday hate people like myself who have
been a stay at home mom who's finally able to
do something where I post videos and make money off
(07:17):
of that, or I promote products from TikTok shop where
I can actually bring in a significant amount of money
to help provide for my family, work my butt off
doing it, but everyone sees it as just a silly
little app You are so out of touch. So is
our Congress, so is all of our government. They have
one track mind, and that's to control everybody.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
After a couple of weeks, the fervor cooled down, and,
like often happens in Washington, d C. It looked as
if the bill was going to stall. But then in
late April twenty twenty four, with the bill attached to
a foreign aid package to Ukraine and Israel, the TikTok
divest or Be Banded Bill easily passed in the Senate.
Speaker 12 (07:58):
On this vote, the Ya's are eighty, the knees are
named team three fifths of the Senators duly chosen and
sworn having voted in the affirmative, the motion is agreed to.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
It was an unprecedented move. For the first time ever,
the US government took a direct action that could lead
to the takedown of a major social media platform with
a massive user base in America, and if anything was clear,
TikTok wasn't going to.
Speaker 13 (08:26):
Just roll over that bill, basically just widening the President's
of sent Now it's all but set and the scene
now set for a legal battle. It seems how long
could that drag on for and what does it mean
for a The bite around the First.
Speaker 14 (08:39):
Amendment that's already promises that the company will file lawsuits
trying to overturn this law on saying that it's unconstitutional
and violating the First Amendment right to free speech. But
the lawmakers say that they're they're very confident they'll prevail.
There's no right to free speech for a Chinese company,
(09:02):
and so the argument is that this is very similar
to regulations, but the government has on who can own
broadcast stations, for example, or radio stations.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
After passage of the bill, President Biden gave a short speech.
Speaker 9 (09:18):
I just signed in the law of the National Security
Packages that was passed by the House representatives this weekend
and by the Senate yesterday.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
But in his prepared remarks Biden never mentioned TikTok, which
seemed to surprise the media in the room.
Speaker 9 (09:32):
I thank you all very much, and now I'm going
off to make a speech at the hotel. I'm laid
for and plenty of time to answer questions on this
another matter, and I have a quick one on TikTok.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Or how could Biden give an over ten minute speech
about a bill that could lead to the ban of
one of the most popular social media platforms in America
and not include one mention of it in his remarks.
It was as if his decision was so unpopular he
wanted to quietly slip that part of the legislation under
(10:01):
the rug. The entire dev development was shocking to most
free speech advocates. A social media platform with one hundred
and seventy million US users now faced a full band
from America if it did not break away from its
parent company by dance. The motives for this action were
hard to decipher. People wondered why and how this could
(10:22):
be happening, and in the absence of good answers, some
on both sides of the aisle began to fill the
void with conspiracy theories. The CCP is using TikTok as
a spyware tool on Americans.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
They're weaponizing our kids. They have spread misinformation.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
You know, if you want to talk about not giving
into Jewish conspiracies.
Speaker 1 (10:40):
John Green Black getting caught on the ADL and the
hot mic talking about how he's going to we got
to get rid of TikTok and.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
Then tomorrow it gets passed through Congress.
Speaker 6 (10:48):
Isn't good.
Speaker 12 (10:48):
Why are we banning TikTok all the Chinese comedy Chinese
commedy scom.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Government doesn't own it, Chinese citizens own it.
Speaker 12 (10:55):
Do you think they it's because they really care about
national security?
Speaker 3 (10:59):
I don't believe it at all.
Speaker 12 (11:01):
Here's what I believe, the social media players, including Facebook,
giving them tons of money to ban TikTok.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
The theories were elaborate, backed by passion and some facts,
but they were all wrong, at least partially. To understand
what led TikTok to this crisis, we must first go
back to the birth of its parent company and learn
about the enemies it gained along the way.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
Life can be pretty stressful these days. You want to
know what makes me feel better? Licorice from the licorice Guy.
Call me crazy, but it's true because I love licorice.
Longtime listeners of reread Pilled America know that licorice is
my absolute favorite candy and the very best liquorice, hands down,
comes from the licorice Guy. I know licorice and it
(11:50):
doesn't get any better than this. What truly sets it
apart is its flavor and its freshness. The softness of
this licorice will blow your mind. I've never had anything
like it. The Licorice Guy offers jumbo gourmet licorice in
nostalgic seasonal flavors a red, blue, raspberry, cinnamon, watermelon, black,
and apple. Trust me, they are all delicious. What I
also love about the Liquorice Guy is that it's an
(12:13):
American family owned business. And you all know that I'm
a big proponent of supporting American companies. Right now, Red
Pilled America listeners get fifteen percent off when you enter
RPA fifteen at checkout. Visit licoricegui dot com and enter
RPA fifteen at checkout. That's licoricegui dot com. They ship daily,
treat yourself and those you love, and taste the difference.
(12:37):
Welcome back to Red Pilled America. In twenty twelve, a
software engineer named Jiong Yiming rented a four bedroom apartment
in Beijing, China. The short, shy Chinese citizen had been
an entrepreneur for about three years, but he hadn't yet
landed on the idea that would put him on the map.
But from this nondescript apartment in a technology hub of
(13:00):
a fast growing nation, Yiming would launch one of the
most disruptive technology companies in history. The location would become
the headquarters of an app company he called byte Dance
and would eventually become the largest privately held social media
organization in the world, and its success can be attributed
to Yiming's unique mind. Xiong Yiming was born in nineteen
eighty three and grew up in the lung Yen Fujiya
(13:22):
Province of China, a southwestern province about an hour and
a half drive from Xiamen, a coastal city that overlooks Taiwan.
The only child of two civil servants, Yiming grew up
in a middle class family. He's been able to keep
most of his early life private, an interesting fact given
the company he'd eventually developed. But what we do know
for sure is that Yiming grew up at a time
(13:44):
of profound cultural change in China. A few years before
he was born, in nineteen seventy eight, the country's leader,
Dung Chiaopeng, initiated a policy that would come to be
known as reform and opening up. This was a pivotal
period in the history of the Red Dragon. It marked
a shift from the strictly planned familiar to most communist
governments of the time to the more market oriented version
(14:07):
that we know today. A new capitalism without freedom was
born as a result of this policy. Jiung Yiming grew
up in a wholly new era, one where innovation and
the entrepreneurial spirit were encouraged throughout the country. Economic opportunities
were expanding, especially in the coastal and urban areas of China,
and Yiming would eventually want in on the action. By
(14:29):
the two thousands, China had fully embraced the digital revolution
happening all over the world. The government encouraged the development
of a technology sector, building tech hubs in places like Beijing.
Yiming wanted to be part of this digital revolution, so
he enrolled at Nankai University, a public college in north
China on the eastern shore of the Bohai Sea. Yiming
(14:51):
was a bit awkward socially. One colleague would later describe
his awkwardness.
Speaker 14 (14:56):
Una I remember once during a chat, I couldn't help
but say no Jiming, you're really bad at talking.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Compensate for his lack of in person social skills, he
turned online. That's what will be off, wah say.
Speaker 15 (15:08):
I was quite active on several BBS technical forms at
the time, like the web design section, et cetera.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
That's Jong Yiming in twenty sixteen, speaking on a Chinese
television show.
Speaker 15 (15:18):
My tech skills were good. I was good at fixing
computers that others couldn't fix.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
He'd help classmates make repairs and assemble their computers. As
a result, he'd often find himself helping females with their computers,
including one for a girl that would become his wife.
Yiming also began to develop a reputation about his character,
as a colleague would later highlight.
Speaker 11 (15:38):
A dice h but I think Yi Ming is really
someone who when he says something, it's exactly what it is.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
Everything he says is exactly as he says it.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
People saw him as direct, with no fluff to his words.
In addition to being the university's de facto computer repair man,
Yiming also became a voracious reader. While other college students
were playing video games, he'd devour not only books on
computer programming, but also the biographies of tech icons, and
he became fascinated by the tech titans of America. It
(16:08):
was these biographies that planted a seed in his mind.
He learned that some of the most successful entrepreneurs started
off as ordinary people living simple lives. Their initial actions
looked small, even insignificant, but each incremental step would ultimately
build into one major success. Yeeming started to believe that
his simple life could also amount to something much more profound.
(16:32):
He reflected on this time in a twenty seventeen interview
with Bloomberg.
Speaker 16 (16:36):
But I read quite a lot of story about bier
Gay while I was young, and Steve Jobs and What's Nick.
While I graduated graduate from a university, I paid quite
a lot of attention to Amazon and Facebook.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
He graduated with a degree in software engineering in two
thousand and five and began bouncing around to different tech firms.
He worked at a travel search engine and quickly became
the technical director. He spent a short at a microblogging site,
then at Microsoft. But through these experiences he learned something
about himself. Iming found the corporate work environment too boring
(17:12):
and bureaucratic. By two thousand and nine, Yming wanted to
go out on his own, and an idea began to brew.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
A long time ago.
Speaker 15 (17:20):
I was thinking that when we watch TV, the programs
that are shown to me are often not the ones
I'm directly interested in. I wish there was a channel
where I could see content that interests me every time
I turn it on.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
For example, in the morning, I'd like to hear about.
Speaker 15 (17:34):
Startup company news and what new Internet products have been
launched internationally. During dinner, I'd like to hear about Internet
business models, and when I turn it on during the day,
I want to hear about the latest Internet technologies.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
But there was no such Internet platform.
Speaker 15 (17:50):
If you rely on people to choose the content, it's
impossible to give everyone different content unless you have one
on one service where everyone has their own editor. So
to achieve this goal, it could only be done by machines.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Idea of a recommendation engine driven by artificial intelligence began
to consume his mind, but he hadn't yet landed on
an application. In two thousand and nine, he collaborated with
a friend to co found a real estate search engine,
but three years later he dumped that business to apply
the idea that had been percolating in his head as
(18:23):
early as two thousand and six. Yi Ming began closely
monitoring his American doppelganger, Mark Zuckerberg and the rise of
his social media network Facebook. Like Zuckerberg, Yiming was socially
awkward but ambitious, and also like the Facebook founder, Yiming
found personal social success in the virtual world of online forums.
By twenty twelve, a once in a lifetime opportunity presented
(18:46):
itself to the budding entrepreneur. That was a pivotal year
for China's technology industry. For the first time ever, mobile
Internet users outnumbered personal computer Internet users as the largest
group online. China's Internet users had swelled to five hundred
(19:06):
and thirty eight million, but of those, mobile Internet users
amounted to roughly three hundred eighty eight million. The smartphone
war and the arrival of the four G era kicked
off a mobile start up boom, and to top it off,
the Chinese Internet was shifting away from the infrastructure used
globally and instead began developing mobile internet products designed specifically
(19:28):
for Chinese users. It was in this mobile epoch that
Jiung Yiming, along with a friend, launched byte Dance from
that four bedroom apartment in Beijing, and the timing couldn't
have been better. Yiming saw a glitch in the approach
of the major Chinese tech firms of the time, a
glitch that he knew his brewing idea could exploit. What
he noticed was that the Chinese tech giants had become
(19:51):
a victim of their own success. They'd gotten big and bloated,
often delivering irrelevant content and advertising to their users. Yiming
recognized that it was the perfect time to hit the
industry by bringing his disruptive idea for a recommendation engine
to China. He described this moment in a twenty sixteen interview.
Speaker 15 (20:24):
If we look back when the Internet first appeared, there
was very little information. Sites like Yahoo and so who
were directory sites listing websites. As more information became available,
site directories weren't enough, so content directories emerged. Then, as
information increased even more, browsing directories became insufficient and search
engines appeared. After search engines, we found that information needed
(20:46):
to be spread among acquaintances, leading to social networks. After that,
we found that, besides social connections and geographic location, information
also needed to be more personalized. Considering not just circles,
but also interests.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
It was a perfect time to launch his recommendations engine.
The first app he created focused on sharing jokes, memes,
and humorous content. It was with this app that Yiming
began to develop his idea for a recommendation algorithm. He
learned what the users liked, how they swiped, what made
them click, what didn't grab their attention. The app did
(21:21):
well and quickly acquired downloads, but it was his next
app that would get the attention of China's massive technology cartel.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
After testing his recommendation engine on the humor app, Yiming
thought it was time to bring his idea for a
customized news channel to life in the form of an app.
He called it to Tiao, meaning headline. It was similar
to today's Google News or Facebook's newsfeed, and he used
the recommendation algorithm he was developing to deliver niche news
(21:50):
that would have historically never made it into a newspaper.
Throughout history, newspapers have typically had to focus on headline
news it appealed to a broad audience. Newspapers couldn't individually
tailor each copy of the news newspaper to the likes
and dislikes to be treader, so nich stories, if they
got printed at all, often got left to the gaps
of newspaper or areas buried deep within the paper. Yimen's
(22:13):
idea could shift those niche stories to a headline by
finding the exact readers that would consider that story important,
no matter how small the group. Yuman would later explain
his disruptive idea on a twenty sixteen Chinese TV show
What Jiga.
Speaker 15 (22:28):
Let me give an example of a very small category
of information, the kind that could only be printed in
the gaps of newspapers in the past.
Speaker 3 (22:34):
It couldn't make the headlines.
Speaker 15 (22:36):
Let's take a gap filling piece of information, the kind
called missing persons notices TA. Often, when someone goes missing,
they contact the newspaper and the paper prints it in
the gap the next day.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Why can't it be.
Speaker 15 (22:48):
The headline because there are many important news items in
the headline section, and this isn't a paid advertisement, so
it can only be placed in the gap. But when
it's printed in a gap the next day, the chances
of finding the person are very very low.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
Right, So we had the idea of pushing the missing person's.
Speaker 15 (23:03):
Information immediately to users within the geographical range where the
person might have gone missing, then you'd have a much
better chance of finding the person. We applied this personalized,
precise recommendation to the small category of missing persons notices
and found that it.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
Was particularly effective. To date, we've helped find over five
hundred people through our information.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
The Totiao app was delivering niche information to disregarded or
overlooked groups. The major newspapers were focused on the top
tier cities. Their content focused on the issues white collar
elites cared about. That rule, users interested in pig farming
or beekeeping couldn't find a news source that would give
them the latest information on their fields of interest. That's
(23:45):
where Totiao came in to fill the gap. Totiao was
not a traditional news app. It didn't produce content, It
had no editors. Over one third of the staff were engineers.
It had no stance on the issues of the day.
At its core, it was an algorithm that focused on
finding the individual in of each of its users by
following each action users took on Totiao, calculating their preferences,
(24:09):
then delivering them news they'd most likely find interesting. Yimin
was building an extraordinarily powerful recommendation engine that was getting
smarter and smarter as people used as app, and did
the Chinese people love it. By twenty fourteen, Totiau had
more than ninety million users. By twenty sixteen, the user
base swelled to five hundred and fifty million, And it
(24:32):
was this success that led to his first major crisis.
Do you want to hear red Pilled America stories ad free?
(24:53):
Then become a backstage subscriber. Just log onto Redpilled America
dot com and click join in the top menu. Join
today and help us save America one story at a time.
Welcome back to Redfield America. So just as Totio exploded
in popularity, its founder, Jean Yi Mien, faced his first
major crisis. Traditional media companies and Internet portals began suing
(25:17):
Totiau for copyright infringement. You see, many of these companies
hadn't yet made the shift to mobile. When Totiao combed
the Internet to find relevant news for its users, it
would often convert these media companies information into a mobile
friendly format. For this act, some of the media companies
accused Totiau of theft, so Yiming had to make a
(25:40):
shift and fast. He worked with the media companies to
create a revenue sharing model, and the crisis led to
an unexpected innovation. As Totiao was growing, Yemen began to
see a trend developing. A new creator economy was forming.
In twenty fifteen, He explained how he began to see
this new movement taking shape when one of his best
(26:02):
workers gave note.
Speaker 15 (26:04):
One day he told me Yieming, I'm quitting content management
to start my.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
Own new media business.
Speaker 15 (26:09):
He realized that telling ordinary people's stories in new media
was underdeveloped, even though there are many readers, so he
started a Tucao account called Tank. He was willing to
give up a high salary in stock options to create
his own new media company.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Yieming noticed that people were writing niche stories and would
try to monetize them. Stay at home moms wrote about
breastfeeding and turned the ads on that page to extra
grocery money. Other product enthusiasts turned their love for brands
into extra cash via advertising. While traditional media companies were faltering,
Yiming was seeing creators innovate to create niche audiences.
Speaker 15 (26:46):
Given all these circumstances, it's clear that we are in
an era of massive change. It is indeed the worst
of times, but it's also the best of times, and
it's just beginning. I truly believe that the era of
creators has begun, or rather, we are on the eve
of a content explosion.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
Yiming saw a unique opportunity to take advantage of this
growing creator economy, and he began to change his business
model to financially incentivize news content creators to produce content
for to Tiao Wells wants.
Speaker 15 (27:21):
In the next twelve months, Tutiao aims to ensure that
at least ten thousand creators earn a substantial incode. Why
are we doing this? This brings us to Tutiao's dream.
Tutio's dream is to become the world's largest Chinese content
creation platform, and if possible, we would like to remove
the word Chinese.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
What Yieming was describing was a bold goal, unheard of
at the time. He didn't just have ambitious goals within China.
He wanted his company to become the world's largest content
creation platform. And in many ways, his goal wasn't just
an offensive move, it was a defensive one as well.
You see the growth of Yiming's recommendation algorithm was so
(27:58):
explosively disruptive in China that it actually became dangerous to business.
At the time, the China technology industry was cutthroat and
was dominated by three major firms known as Bat or
by Deu, Ali Baba, and Tencent. By Deu was the
Google of China, Ali Baba was the equivalent of Amazon,
(28:20):
and Tencent was similar to Facebook or Meta. These three
media companies would either buy or crush tech startups that
crept into their territories. The explosive growth of Yiming's Totiao
started to creep into the Bat firm's realm, and he
knew that they'd soon come knocking. But as he'd already
learned in the years after college, he didn't like the big,
(28:41):
bureaucratic nature of the major tech firms. Yiming didn't want
to work for someone else, so he had to come
up with a way to bypass these behemoths to grow
and survive. This was an obstacle almost every Chinese tech
entrepreneur could see on Yiming's horizon, and in one instance,
during the broadcast of a Chinese entrepreneurial TV show called Dialogue,
(29:02):
the man behind to TiO, an e commerce entrepreneur, offered
Yiming some advice.
Speaker 17 (29:08):
Who was It's signed.
Speaker 18 (29:08):
If I were young Yieming, I'd be more aggressive in
pursuing globalization. Compared to the previous generation of Internet entrepreneurs,
we have a broader global perspective and greater opportunities for globalization.
From a value creation standpoint, leading Chinese information and products
abroad also creates value for both bat and the entire country.
When your company is globally positioned and you bring global
(29:31):
resources back to China, you'll likely be in a more
relaxed position. Yes, the world is so big, I want
everyone to see.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Tutiao Yeming no doubt saw the building storm. So to
survive an attack by the Big Three, Yiming needed a
business model that reached into a larger pool. He knew
very early on that he needed to go global, and
as expected, by twenty sixteen, one of the Big three,
ten Cent the Facebook of China, began to apply the pressure.
(29:59):
They sent word to Yiming that they wanted to buy
his company, Byte Dance.
Speaker 15 (30:12):
When I heard about this news, a colleague asked me
about it. He told me I didn't join tucow to
become a ten cent employee. I responded that I didn't
start tou Chow to become a ten cent employee either,
But that doesn't mean we have any.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
Issues with ten cents cooperation or competition.
Speaker 15 (30:25):
I just want to express that we hope to become
a platform company that brings significant value and meaning to
society on our own.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
The host of the TV show saw trouble in the
entrepreneur's position and pressed, ye mean on the issue?
Speaker 1 (30:46):
Are you worried that your attitude or statements might upset
any of the bat companies.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
I think they're all smart enough not to get angry
over this.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
That ye mean could see the writing on the wall.
A rejection of the ten cent offer meant he was
now going to become a target. So in twenty sixteen
announced a new venture. He was going to invest roughly
one hundred and fifty million dollars to develop a short
video platform he'd call the app dough in. The logo
was a lowercase letter D made into a musical note,
(31:17):
and it would quickly grow to become the global social
media behemoth that would eventually be targeted for banishment by
the US government.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Coming up on red pilled America.
Speaker 17 (31:27):
It was Donald Trump's first rally in four months as
the US president campaigns for reelection. Hundreds of thousands registered
for tickets online, bout the nineteen thousand seat capacity stadium
in Oklahoma was less than half fulls and its TikTok
users who oppose Donald Trump who are claiming credit for
(31:47):
the low turnout.
Speaker 5 (31:48):
Would you recommend that people download that up on their
phones tonight, tomorrow, anytime, currently.
Speaker 12 (31:55):
Only if you want your private information in the hands
of the Chinese Communist Party.
Speaker 6 (31:58):
So it's almost like they recognized that technologies influencing kids development,
and they make their domestic version a spinach version of TikTok,
while they've shipped the opium version to the rest of
the world.
Speaker 10 (32:11):
And this TikTok fear that's somehow what videos we like
is like precious data that's being shared with the CCP. Look,
I'm willing to believe it's possible, but they never proved that.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
Red Pilled America is an iHeartRadio original podcast. It's owned
and produced by Patrick Carrelci and me Adriana Cortez for
Informed Ventures. Now you can get ad free access to
our entire catalog of episodes by becoming a backstage subscriber.
To subscribe, just visit redpilled America dot com and could
join in the topmenu. Thanks for listening.
Hosts And Creators
Adryana Cortez
Patrick Courrielche
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!