Perplexity And TikTok

Perplexity.AI, the multi-artificial-intelligence-model search engine, has put a bid in to buy TikTok.

This is intriguing because they are going up against Oracle in the bidding war and Oracle has already been hosting TikTok's US data for the past few years here in the states for US users. Also the head of Oracle, Larry Ellison is buddies with President Trump.

The idea of having Perplexity, which is already a really cool product, integrate TikTok into its ecosystem could be really cool and a boon for both the platforms and creators alike.

Perplexity is singularly positioned to rebuild the TikTok algorithm without creating a monopoly, combining world-class technical capabilities with Little Tech independence. Any acquisition by a consortium of investors could in effect keep ByteDance in control of the algorithm, while any acquisition by a competitor would likely create a monopoly in the short form video and information space. All of society benefits when content feeds are liberated from the manipulations of foreign governments and globalist monopolists.

TikTok’s "For You" feed is personalized to each user and building a real-time recommendation system is vital to keeping a short video platform fresh and fun to use. Perplexity would start by building these basic systems to ensure users maintain a seamless experience. This infrastructure would be developed and maintained in American data centers with American oversight, ensuring alignment with domestic privacy standards and regulations.

The fact that Perplexity is saying they want to keep it transparent and keep it out of the hands of a monopoly is also a plus for the company to have a chance at getting the social network.

On the marketing side, having the videos in Perplexity and having the AI system become more popular, is also intriguing.

On one hand: "Oh great! More AI eating my data." But on the other hand, it's already being scarfed down by AI, so why not get some marketing benefit from it.

So what's the marketing benefit, you ask. When the videos on TikTok are being fed into the AI search engine your videos have a better chance of surfacing and getting eyeballs than being walled off in a walled garden of TikTok and just its users.

What do you think? Is Perplexity owning TikTok a good thing or a bad thing?

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