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 knowledge consumption.

Here's what we're serving up today:

• The US War on China 🚫

• Just Google TikTok It 🔎

• Tools and Resources ⚒️

The US War on China 🚫

Last Wednesday, the POTUS launched a war on China.

Their weapon of choice: Stopping VC and PE investments in Chinese tech companies.

The rule essentially bars US firms from throwing their dollars into high-end Chinese technology sectors.

More specifically, the executive order aims to block investments in the following areas:

1. Quantum Computing

2. Advanced Chips

3. Artificial Intelligence

The US has been in a technological cold war with China for the past couple of decades. Even though Uncle Sam still controls the world, China is catching up.

Was this move shocking? Not exactly.

Imagine your friend announcing they’re going vegan after eating only salads every time you go out for the last year.

The US has been trying to decouple themselves from China in the past couple of years. US-based VC funding in China is already at a record low in 2023.

This obviously affects players on both sides, albeit more negatively for China.

1/ New sources of capital will have to be found on both sides, as the US and China both have invested 10s of billions of dollars in each other’s tech ecosystems.

2/ More VC and PE firms can be expected to decouple their global business into country-specific arms. Sequoia voted in June to separate its China and Southeast Asia businesses by March 2024.

3/ China’s going to have serious issues on the AI war-front due to chip availability, which is already reflected by their panic order of $5 billion worth of NVIDIA chips, like they're the last rolls of toilet paper in a pandemic.

What consequences do you think this holds for the US-China relationship? Let us know by replying.

Just Google TikTok It 🔎

Which app do you fire up when you want to search for the best tacos near you?

• If you’re a Boomer, it's definitely Google.

• If you’re a Millennial, it’s still mostly Google.

• If you’re a Gen-Z, it’s most likely Google TikTok.

Yes folks, that’s right. TikTok isn’t only giving competition to its social media arch nemesis, Meta, it’s also taking on Google for search.

To be sure, Big G is still the biggest mafia in town, holding 90% of the search engine market.

But increasingly, users, especially GenZ, are skipping Google search in favor of TikTok.

The Battle for Eyes and Ears

The ultimate prize for these behemoths is a BIG slice of the digital advertising pie.

Big G’s ad haul is expected to grow to $279 billion by 2027 with its market share being around 42%.

Tiktok is quickly progressing though with ad rev expected to reach $36 billion by 2027 lifting its share from 2.3% to 5.4%.

Why TikTok, Though?

There are 2 primary reasons for TikTok’s growing advertising business.

1. Lower Ad Prices

2. Higher Engagement

These 2 factors are essentially any marketer’s dream.

Tiktok has seen its user base explode in the past couple of years so there is much more supply on the platform compared to demand. This has led to lower ad prices.

TikTok’s biggest moat is its user engagement. The app commands one of the highest engagement rates of any media platform.

High engagement within the app means more opportunities to engage with advertisements, making dollar bills flocking to the platform for higher ROI.

What platform are you using for your search?

 ⚒️ Tools and Resources ⚒️

💵 Razier - A database of 51,000+ investors for your startup.

🎙️ Recast - Turn your want-to-read article into rich audio summaries.

🛠️ 60sec.site - Generate beautiful landing pages with AI under 60 seconds.

💬 Baserun - Testing platform for LLM applications.

📰 Recommended Reading 📰

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