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Comment by lmaocat | Hacker News Reader

Your question was probably rhetorical, but I'll answer it anyways: TikTok's userbase and revenue generation are massive.

It will be extremely costly for Google or Apple to remove TikTok simply because of its massive fanbase of everyday users - remove TikTok and you get millions of pissed off users, and for what?

Those users didn't care that their data was being harvested anyways (any cursory Google search will reveal TikTok's data harvesting policies), they care about the the fun app that they love spending hours on everyday, and now the tyrants at Apple and Google are taking their fun away.

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You’re right. But I wonder what would happen if both did it simultaneously.

Everyone learns how to sideload apps.

Nah, not on iPhones they don’t. Barrier to entry (and risk of breaking their phone) of jail breaking is too high for ~99% of iPhone users.

Android might be a different story. But not THAT different. People REALLY rely on app stores.

> (and risk of breaking their phone) of jail breaking is too high for ~99% of iPhone users.

really 99%, you have the data backing that up? At any rate my baseless assumption is that TikTok is mainly younger users, I bet for people who do not have their phone from work or purchased themselves from having a job i.e kids and teens, the risk of jail breaking is minimal - at least the first time.

on edit: assume the preceding in a jocular tone.

Didn’t happen with Epic before I think

OK, I just know that if something my daughter wanted on her phone or computer was no longer available through normal ways she would figure out the other ways to get it and wouldn't care about the cost, because hey that's not her problem that's my problem.

World productivity increases 3-5%

Also when people use a mobile app frequently, it increases their chances of interacting with other services in your ecosystem more often, e.g. making purchases, viewing ads, etc. Banning TikTok reduces the need of taking out the phone frequently during the day for many people.

The apple v epic saga has lead to the same result. Epic pulled fortnite from the appstore and blamed apple for taking all their money. Now the kids are mad at apple for inciting the removal of their favorite game.

Are they really though? Did the iPhone share among young people decline significantly afterwards?

Well, that was my point. After 3 months everyone had forgot about it.

Ah sorry that’s a misunderstanding then

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