Hi Everyone. This is Take Off. We're like a hidden Easter egg in your favorite video game - surprising, delightful, and adding an extra layer of fun to your tech news consumption.

Here's what we're serving up today:

• TikTok's Coming For Your Wallets 💵

• Cisco Shells Out $28 Billion 💰

• Asteroids ☄️

TikTok's Coming For Your Wallets 💵

Everyone has an “unpopular opinion”.

• Pineapples on pizza is a great combination.

• Milk first; cereal second.

And our unpopular opinion is that TikTok can potentially become one of the biggest E-commerce companies on the planet.

The company has carved out its little corner in the crowded social media world and is looking to expand their little corner to not be little anymore.

Yes, we know that they are MAYBE funneling your data back to China but TikTok has given a whole new elevation to social media by giving the world the next digital nicotine - Short Form Video.

Our fleeting attention spans love the 60 second videos so much so that Instagram and Youtube had to create their own replicas to stay up-to-date with the recent trend.

The Frontier of E-Commerce

After creating a dent in the social media world, TikTok has now set its eyes on a new target - E-Commerce.

TikTok’s E-Commerce platform - TikTok shop has been officially launched in the US.

Because why just kill time when you can also kill your wallet.

Aiming to roll out this feature to 150 million active users and targeting a whopping $20 billion in sales—a four-fold increase from the previous year—TikTok is setting the stage for a David versus Goliath duel with giants like Amazon and its fellow chinese competitors, Shein and Temu, who have seen great success as of late in the US.

An Uphill Battle

We ain’t gonna lie. Making TikTok shop successful is going to be an uphill challenge. If you remember, Meta tried a couple of years to introduce in-app shopping on Instagram.

If you don’t remember, well, that’s the whole point of the battle being an uphill one.

But let's not forget, this isn't TikTok's debut dance with e-commerce. Their Chinese counterpart, Douyin, witnessed an astonishing $208 billion in sales in 2022.

Furthermore, with the app contributing to 5% of Indonesia's entire e-commerce market, TikTok isn't just a novice hoping for a slice of the pie; it's a seasoned player with a proven track record.

TikTok is hoping to leverage their content network and creator marketplace to their advantage.

TikTok is HUUGGEEE in the USA and GenZ loves it. It has one of the highest engagement rates amongst other platforms which gives it the strategic advantage over Amazon and other E-commerce platforms that do not have the same content network.

Cisco Shells Out $28 Billion 💰

2023 was starting to look like a snore-fest on the M&A floor until Cisco swiped right on Splunk in a grandiose $28 billion deal, making it the biggest tech acquisition of this year.

Cisco agreed to pay $157 per share, which is a generous 31% premium at the time of the offering which underlines their resolve to nestle Splunk’s capabilities within its fold.

Cisco was the deity of the dot-com boom but its legacy business of manufacturing computer networking equipment has been significantly impacted due to supply chain issues and the rising influence of the public cloud.

This has necessitated the exploration of new and substantial revenue streams, for which the company has identified cybersecurity as a key area for growth and investment.

This merger is a way for Cisco to step out of its networking comfort zone and strut into the cybersecurity spotlight.

The merger is touted to generate a hefty $4 billion in ARR, which would prove to be a firm step in bolstering Cisco’s subscription and recurring revenue streams.

Cisco will get an observability platform with Splunk that could fit nicely into its security business to help customers understand security threats.

CEOs from both companies were pointing at the AI angle in this deal because these days, there ALWAYS needs to be an AI angle. They mentioned that the deal with Splunk will help them drive the next generation of AI-enabled security and observability.

Could this be the remaking of Cisco from an old legacy behemoth to a new-age sexy tech company?

☄️ Asteroids ☄️

BeReal's popularity seems to be dipping despite new features, according to Similarweb. However, BeReal says they're still growing. It's tough competing with the big players like Instagram and newbies like BeFake. 📉🤷‍♂️

X has paid $20 million to creators since starting its revenue share in July. Now, it's more enticing for creators to engage on X. By the way, X Premium isn't what it sounds like! 😅💰

Apple says the iPhone 15 and 15 Pro overheating issues aren't hardware-related, and apps like Instagram and Uber might be culprits. A fix is on the way with iOS 17.1 without slowing down performance. 📱🔥

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📰 Recommended Reading 📰

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