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Today:
- Snap Stock Closes 6% Up After Pompeo's TikTok Threat
- Could the U.S. Ban China-Based TikTok?
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Snap Stock Closes 6% Up After Pompeo's TikTok Threat
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://dot.la/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQ0MDk4NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0ODg3NTk5OX0.G1PsKdW-h4gVGZ0k_12ltp3eCO1VkH6IfRP6hPSzc6s/image.jpg?width=980" id="e9a13" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5a81610e6918d3d6fd705458d371f4c4" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />silver iPhone 6 on top of yellow wooden surfacePhoto by Thought Catalog on Unsplash<p>Snap stock closed nearly 6% up on Tuesday after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the U.S. government is "looking at" a ban on Chinese social media apps, including TikTok, because of security concerns.</p><p>Snap didn't respond to a request for comment. TikTok said in a statement that it's a company that's led by an American CEO, with hundreds of employees and "key leaders" in safety, security, product and public policy in the U.S.<br></p><p>"We have no higher priority than promoting a safe and secure app experience for our users," the statement said. "We have never provided user data to the Chinese government, nor would we do so if asked."</p>Could the U.S. Ban Chinese-Owned TikTok?
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQ0MDg3Ny9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0ODA0ODc0OH0.jiz5wtUGbDqa6Nqtj3gKbMLjYkzqIGqiBnGf2fv7PUE/img.jpg?width=980" id="d1531" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e0516651b157cf7c6c38cc2df952823f" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" /><p>The Trump Administration is "looking at" banning TikTok, the popular social media app owned by Chinese internet giant ByteDance, over concerns that information is being shared with Beijing.</p><p>Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/mike-pompeo-tik-tok-china-communist-social-media-spying-fox-ingraham" target="_blank"> Fox News</a> Monday that the United States is considering whether to restrict TikTok and other social media apps after India banned its use. <br></p><p>"We are taking this very seriously and we are certainly looking at it," Pompeo said. "With respect to Chinese apps on people's cell phones, I can assure you the United States will get this one right too...I don't want to get out in front of the president, but it's something we're looking at."</p><p>Pompeo warned American users that downloading the app would leave their private information "in the hands of the Chinese communist party."</p><p><span></span>Culver City-based TikTok, has around 30 million active users in the U.S. and is owned by Beijing-based technology firm ByteDance Ltd. The social media app has received much scrutiny from the national security community. It's no longer allowed on Australian Defense Department devices following a similar ban by the Pentagon due to national security concerns surrounding China's potential access to data.<br></p><p>At the end of June, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/29/india-bans-tiktok-and-dozens-of-other-chinese-apps-over-security-concerns.html" target="_blank">India joined the ranks of those banning TikTok</a>, restricting it and other Chinese social media apps due to security concerns.</p><p>ByteDance has said that all U.S. user data is stored in the United States and Singapore, not on Chinese servers.</p><p>Meanwhile, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/06/technology/tiktok-google-facebook-twitter-hong-kong.html" target="_blank">New York Times</a> reported, TikTok is withdrawing its app from Hong Kong stores and making it inoperable there after the government began using broad new security laws aimed at blocking opposition to the communist party in the former British colony.<br></p><p>Facebook, Twitter and Google stopped processing Hong Kong's request for user data, according to the report, a move that could hurt their ad revenue.</p><p>TikTok isn't available in mainland China and the company has said that executives outside China run operations.</p><p>___</p><p><em>Do you have a story that needs to be told? My DMs are open on Twitter </em><a href="https://twitter.com/latams" target="_blank"><em>@latams</em></a><em>. You can also email me at tami(at)dot.la, or ask for my Signal.</em></p>Related Articles Around the Web
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'All Celebrities Are Gig Economy Workers': Cameo's CEO On How He Plans to Disrupt the Entertainment World
Jun 22 2020
"Fight for simplicity" is a guiding principle at Cameo, a marketplace platform that launched in early 2017 out of Chicago but is increasingly rooting itself in Los Angeles. No surprise, then, that the company's premise isn't too complicated. Celebrities with over 20,000 Instagram followers – which occasionally stretches the limit of what one might consider a "celebrity" – can set up a Cameo account and list a price at which they will record a short, personalized video for customers. Caitlyn Jenner currently charges $2,500. Former NFL MVP Brett Favre asks for $300. Someone who goes by MeesterMario requests a humble $5. Whatever the number, Cameo keeps 25% of the transaction and the talent does what it wishes with the remainder.
<p>To date, Cameo has sold over 1 million videos, with a peak of 69,000 in the week before this year's Mother's Day. The company currently has 130 employees – 80 in Chicago, 40 in L.A., 10 distributed elsewhere – and expects to generate $100 million in bookings in 2020.</p><p>Cameo has raised over $65 million, most recently a mid-2019 $50 million Series B led by Kleiner Perkins, with participation from Playa Vista-based The Chernin Group. The private company does not publicly share its market value, but following that Series B, PitchBook pegged its post-money valuation at $300 million. Since then, however, Cameo has reached profitability, chief executive Steven Galanis says, boosted in part by tailwinds associated with the pandemic.</p><p>Galanis moved from Chicago to L.A. in May this year. A native Chicagoan, he attended Duke for undergrad then returned to the Windy City, where he worked in finance, film production and at LinkedIn before founding Cameo. He has been running Cameo's Chicago office while his two co-founders Devon Townsend and Martin Blencowe have been holding things down in L.A. </p><p>Now based in what has become the informal live-in headquarters for Cameo's leadership at a house in the Hollywood Hills, Galanis took some time out to chat with <em>dot.LA </em>about his decision to move out west, what he's looking forward to in the city, and his plans for Cameo.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">
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<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">What is Cameo? 🤔</small>
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</p><p><em>This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity</em>.<br/></p><h3>Why did you decide to move to L.A.? </h3><p>When the pandemic set in and shelter-in-place orders started, one panic moment I had was not being able to travel. Last year I took over 150 flights, and, like, 60 red-eye flights from L.A. to Chicago. I was living in Chicago but really I was living on airplanes. In a world where you can't travel, I felt I could be most impactful in this period in L.A., and now I'll be here indefinitely.</p><p>L.A. is the best place for me to be for Cameo right now. I've been focused on being <em>the</em> tech company to work for in Chicago and I think that's mission accomplished in many ways. Now my objective is to make Cameo that place in L.A. I think it's so simpatico with the king industry of the economy here, which is entertainment. </p><p>The <em>Hollywood Reporter</em> put out a list with the <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/hollywoods-top-innovators-15-people-shaping-future-entertainment-1292439/item/inovators-2020-list-eric-shanks-steve-myers-1292460" target="_blank">15 people disrupting Hollywood</a> and I think I was the only one on the list who wasn't living here. If you can be disrupting Hollywood without even being in L.A., imagine how much we could get done if I were living here.</p><h3>You've been able to raise a lot of money really fast. To what do you attribute your success? </h3><p>It's a couple things. Number one, in the very early days, being in Chicago was pretty helpful to us. If we'd started in L.A., I think there are so many vested interests in the entertainment world that might've snuffed us out early. But there was huge demand for a hot consumer social company that dealt with entertainment and celebrities. It's very classically an L.A. business, and some early investors even told us we would never be able to build this in Chicago – that it has to be in L.A. or New York. But I think it actually helped us get started.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://dot.la/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQwODEzNS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMTI5MjEyNH0.Rz4OBSxgOLoCe0x9zeTJGx8sNmxbLWRcveyRkvj5I6I/image.png?width=980" id="ad7d5" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="fe83ac0775ec1c1561dad020a02438f2" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Cameo CEO Steven Galanis
<p>The other thing is that our product creates magical moments. It's so visceral, how happy you make the person. On the talent side, our value proposition is that you're getting paid to become more famous. It's similar to back in the day when you'd go to a concert and buy the merch and you'd become a living, breathing billboard for that person. Cameo is in many ways the 2020 version of that. I think the other thing that's happened is our product NPS (net promoter score) is over 80 – one of the highest in the whole world. Users become such fans and that started the consumer-side network effects, which turned early- and late-stage investors into big customers of ours. When you have investors using your product and telling stories about it, that's a good sign.</p>
<h3>What are your plans for growth? </h3><p>We've been really fortunate that the pandemic has been really accretive to our business. One thing <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/24/business/media/new-model-celebrity.html" target="_blank">I said to the </a><em><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/24/business/media/new-model-celebrity.html">New York Times</a></em> a couple weeks ago was that at their core, all celebrities are gig economy workers. They get paid per concert, per game, per show. So in a world where all productions have stopped for the indefinite future, we are excited to be able to provide talent with a meaningful revenue stream that helps them to get paid to become more popular. </p><p>The business grew by about 1000% from the week pre-COVID to a peak around Mother's Day. We tend to do well when Hallmark does well; it's seasonal. So we're thinking about how to take these tailwinds from COVID, shelter-in-place, and social distancing, where people want to send love remotely. Part of that is to stay innovative, so we recently launched Cameo Live, which is basically Zoom chatting with celebrities. </p><p>And the other lasting thing is how do we take all these people using the service and lock them into the ecosystem and create a more sticky experience that's based on engagement, not just on revenue. We think there's a lot of cool innovation on our product roadmap coming in the next few years and I think that'll be a good story to watch.</p><h3>What are your hiring plans? </h3><p>During the pandemic we've decided to move to a fully distributed team but we'll have legacy centers of gravity in Chicago and L.A., especially as we expand our presence with me here.</p><p>Cameo became profitable in April, which is a rarity for tech companies, and we were profitable by a substantial amount in May, which means we haven't burned cash since February. We're profitable and we have a majority of the Series B funding left so we're extremely well funded. We could go raise more capital but we're much more focused on building a killer team. Everyone on product and all our designers are in L.A. Historically our talent team had been in Chicago but we're looking to hire more people in L.A. for our talent team, which is basically working with or recruiting celebrities. We're also looking to add talented marketers and I think most of our hiring will be in L.A. despite the fact that we're distributed. Even within L.A. you usually need multiple offices so we think being distributed will be great and this house and our sublet in Venice will be great assets as we continue to grow.</p><h3>On a personal level, what excites you most about being in Los Angeles?</h3><p>Well, the weather's a lot better here than in Chicago, especially in the winter. I'm from Chicago. I went to Duke then moved right back, so I spent 10 years establishing myself there. It's not to say that my work there is finished for the rest of my life, but it's an exciting challenge for me personally to make new friends and establish myself in a place I've been coming to for a long time but never called home.</p><p>Devon surfs every morning so I've spent a lot of time in Venice, but I'm not a surfer; I don't really go to the beach. To me that L.A. wasn't my cup of tea. So I've been enjoying my time in the Hills. And I think downtown has a lot going on. There's a lot of cool stuff emerging there and I'm looking forward to exploring that more.</p><p>Plus my girlfriend's really excited about all the hikes we can go on. I've never hiked before – you live in downtown Chicago, you don't go hiking.</p><p>Oh, and plus I'm excited about the best tacos in the world.</p><p>--- </p><p><em>Sam Blake primarily covers media and entertainment for dot.LA. Find him on Twitter @hisamblake and email him at samblake@dot.LA</em><br/></p>From Your Site Articles
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The video clip shows NBA hall-of-famer Karl Malone, the bruising power forward for the Utah Jazz, barreling down the lane and crashing head-on into what awaits. But the highlight doesn't show "The Mailman" delivering one of his punishing slam dunks. Instead, Malone is driving a dune buggy, and the obstacle he's trampled along the dirt path is now roadkill.
Such is the kind of short-form video content that appears on More Sports, an app developed and produced by Beverly Hills-based AIB Sportsbrands — and currently exclusively targeting China.
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As China's love for basketball has grown over the years, several NBA players have earned their own Mandarin monikers. Golden State Warriors sharpshooter Stephen Curry goes by
<em>Wa Wa Lian Sha Shou</em>: Babyfaced Assassin. 2019 NBA MVP Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, whose real name could stump a spelling bee champion, is called Alphabet Brother. And Demarcus Cousins, a big man in the twilight of his career, is <em>Kao Shen</em> – the transliteration of his last name, which also means "God of the Test." Some Chinese students have even been known to offer him a quick prayer before an exam.
</p><p>
"China is totally basketball crazy," summarizes Zak Dychtwald, author of "Young China" and consultant on all things related to the 400 million millennials in the biggest market on Earth.</p><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/427050462" width="100%" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="524f84d0c4acb5021c637b7469cc45d7"></iframe><p>And More Sports, which launched in 2019, believes it has a unique remedy for the Middle Kingdom's NBA infatuation.<br/></p><p>
The content on the app focuses on professional athletes' lives off the court. "It's what they do – how they train, their hobbies, what they cook. What they're like as real people," says Brooks Branch, AIB Sportsbrands' chief executive.
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The roster of players who both star in the video content and are also equity partners with the company includes James Harden, and retired all-stars Steve Nash and Kevin Garnett.
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The Chinese market can be hard for players to access, Branch and his co-founder Fred Goldring note, and athletes have been enthusiastic about using the app as a way to build their brands in unfamiliar territory. Many also appreciate the opportunity to play an unfamiliar position as entrepreneurs.
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Celebrity excitement for these kinds of extracurricular channels is "usually in proportion to the size of the check," Branch says. "(But) in this case, it's a little bit like when indie boutique studios were popping up – when Disney bought Miramax, and Warner bought New Line. We're almost like that, where the talent's excited to do what we're doing and loving the spirit of what we're doing."
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"We're getting engagement from these partners in an entrepreneurial way, much deeper than traditional sponsorship," Goldring adds.
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Following several years of complex and costly negotiations with the Chinese authorities, the company was able to design an acceptable corporate structure and obtain the necessary broadcast licenses before launching last year. Branch chalks up their ability to get situated in what can often be a tricky environment for foreigners to hard work, persistence, connections, luck and "guanxi" – a Chinese term that he says means "goodwill juju". In other words, it was about "getting the right people to endorse us and getting friends in the right places."
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The company says it has yet to make much money because most of the first year its app was in beta. But Branch tells dot.LA that things are off to a good start.
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"We'd hoped to have one million active users in the first year and we have 6-7 times that," he says.
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As an indication of what's possible, Chinese firm iResearch forecasts that China's short-form video market revenues will grow to nearly $30 billion by 2021. For comparison, the entire global market for recorded music revenue in 2019 was about $20 billion.
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Branch admits that the postponed NBA season has likely fueled demand for More Sports, as fans in and outside of China have been starved of content. But as the league prepares to resume its season with a truncated schedule starting July 31, Branch and Goldring think More Sports is poised for growth, and profitability. The app was designed, they note, to complement the on-the-court action, rather than substitute for it.
</p><h3>The Chinese Market </h3><p>
Dychtwald points to two trends that could make More Sports particularly well-suited for the Chinese market.
</p><p>
One is basketball's popularity. China's love for the NBA, Dychtwald says, has grown steadily since the 1992 U.S. Olympic dream team boosted the international cache of the league and its culture. Chinese national Yao Ming was the first overall pick in the 2002 NBA draft, and his subsequent success with the Houston Rockets brought China's enthusiasm to new heights. The 2008 Beijing Olympics — which Dychtwald says brought "Kobe Fever" to the mainland — sealed the deal. Today basketball is up there with soccer as "far and away" the most popular sports in China, at least among the youth.
</p><p>
The second factor is More Sports' focus on short-form video. TikTok raked in $17 billion of revenue in 2019, according to Bloomberg. It's a format that Chinese consumers understand well, Dychtwald says.
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"TikTok was made for China, by China," he adds. "(Short-form video) is far more natural and native to China than here."
</p><p>
Dychtwald also notes a recent trend in China of successful "products around products" that offer an insider's view of what's going on behind the scenes of, say, scripted drama programs. The country's version of Dancing With The Stars, for example, has spawned a successful spin-off that follows the participants off the dance floor.
</p><h3>
Can More Sports Score More?</h3><p>
Branch, Goldring and More Sports head of talent Bill Sanders all have backgrounds that give the app an edge, they say. Goldring is an Emmy-winning executive producer and former entertainment lawyer whose clients included Beyoncé and Will Smith. Sanders is a sports agent who works with Yao Ming on his Napa-based wine company. And Branch has a long history in entertainment, branding and creative development, including running a division at Paramount Pictures and advising several other major studios.</p><p>
The team also highlights the deep market research they conducted as a reason for their initial success.
</p><p>
"What we did really well was not try to be anything other than what the fans wanted in China," Branch says.
</p><p>
They plan to take a similar, culturally tailored approach as they expand into other international markets. Launching in the U.S., they say, will come last.
</p><p>
Dychtwald wonders whether More Sports would benefit from pursuing a multi-platform strategy, providing content to the many short-form video platforms such as TikTok that already have a foothold in China. Goldring notes that the company has distribution partnership deals with Chinese digital incumbents including TikTok-parent company ByteDance's Douyin platform, WeChat and Tencent.</p><p>The company also touts another advantage: being based in Los Angeles, the world's center stage for where sports meets entertainment. It's no coincidence, they say, that the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers were known as "Showtime."
</p><p>This year's Lakers are among the 22 teams set to participate in the NBA's salvaged season. Fans in China, who've fallen increasingly in love with the purple and gold since catching Kobe Fever, will have plenty to watch, both on and off the court.
</p><p>---</p><p><em>Sam Blake primarily covers media and entertainment for dot.LA. Find him on Twitter @hisamblake and email him at samblake@dot.LA</em><br/></p>
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