If We Ban TikTok, Where Does It End?

Will the very real and ongoing discussions and policycreation over concerns around the potential of TikTok sharing data with the Chinese government have ramifications that go far beyond a silly timewasting video app The implications for Chinese television manufacturers who use ACR automated content recognition data to collect data about every single piece of content that goes through the glass of the TV are enormousIf you have been to CES at any point in time over the past four decades you know the prominence that television sets have had for decades In fact the Central Hall floor is a great retrospective on the geodynamics of the industry In the 3970s the leading TV manufacturers were based in the USA RCA Magnavox and Packard Bell In the 3980s the show floor and subsequent consumer demand for televisions turned to the Japanese brands Sony Panasonic Sanyo JVC and Sharp These brands dominated until the 3990s when new entrants from South Korea Samsung and GoldStar subsequently renamed LG in 1995 began to appear targeting the lower end of the TV market By the early 2000s with both innovatingamp160and gaining a reputation for high quality these Korean brands began to dominate the TV sales market In addition they becameamp160the two quotmustseesquotamp160of Central Hall the backbone of CES by diversifying their product offerings into mobile laptops connected and smart appliances robotics and more Samsung and LG still dominate the television market with a combined global market share of 489 overall which is even higher when you look at the premium end of the marketAround 2010 a new group of Chinesemanufactured televisions began to find their way onto the show floor albeit in the back and not always in Central Hall Brands like Huawei TCL Hisense Haier Xiaomi and Skyworth all Chinesebased companies followed the playbook started by Samsung in its early years with lowermarket targets and often built on a Roku or Android TV OSMore recently Comcast partnered with Hisense to embed their Xfinity Flex OS into the set These televisions sold primarily in the US at Walmart Costco and Sam39s Club have improved in quality year over year While maybe not quite at the premium status of Samsung Sony or LG and perhaps more likely to be the secondary or tertiary set in a household they have found a mass audienceIf the CES Central Hall can truly be viewed as a geopolitical historical map then China as the next chapter is here These manufacturers are no longer in some obscure corner of Central Hall Not only are they front and center when it comes to showcasing televisions in 2023 they were exponentially larger than Samsung and LGAccording to justreleased 2023 forecasts from the Consumer Tech Association US TV sales which hovered around 40mm per year prior to the pandemic and peaked with sales in 2020 of 495mm and 465mm in 2021 are now back to prepandemic levels with CTA predicting sales of 394mm in 2023 and 403mm in 2024 Globally an estimated 217mm televisions are sold each yearThe market share of Chinesemanufactured TVs sold has been growing steadily with one estimate placing it at 27 percent of sales in 2022 Hisense shipped 196mm TV sets globally in July 2022 TCL was on a similar track stating that it had sold 1015mm TV sets globally by midyearA leading data privacy compliance expertamp160with whom I recently spokeamp160summed it up best when it comes to privacy concerns quotWe39ve been so focused on the device in our pocket the smartphone that we39ve forgotten about the device on our wallquot As the television morphs from an almost exclusive passiveviewing quotcouch potatoquotamp160device into an interactiveamp160home management and communications hub the data produced can read when and where we work out view who is outside our home on our smart doorbell apps monitor when and how we engage in ecommerce control the temperature of our home and manage our inhome security That39s in addition to quotknowingquot who is viewing which shows playing which videogames and watching what type of content While the TV is still for all intent and purposes a HH multiuser viewing device manufacturers continue to improve ways to get down to the individual profileThere was a time not very long ago that we would not think twice about that type of data being shared with China as any more of a concern than data being shared overall Unfortunately in the Xi Jinping era with the tension around Taiwan continuing to grow and China39s alignment with Russia around the Ukraine war the reality of geopolitics is a real and serious factor This is our new reality If the US government believes TikTok to be a quotnational security risk or concernquot as several prominent officials including FBI Director Christopher Wray have stated then they should not be singling out one app albeit a very popular one In the interest of consistency they must look at any Chinesemanufactured device that collects data including the quickly growing adoption of Chinese manufactured televisions in the USIf the history of the CES floor is an indicator then the road to Chinese dominance in television hardware is well on its way to becoming a reality If policy or regulation around this is going to happen it should be starting nowBut Wait That39s Not All To be clear I am not trying to raise hysteria but rather point out that as we navigate the new geopolitical landscape in which we find ourselves that we take it seriously and are consistent in policy With the rapid advancement in the power of AI to analyze the petabytes of data being generated by television set usage and its likely ability to merge other datasets with that television data we cannot afford to kick the can on this discussionFor another perspective on China and data please read this perspective from my colleague exCIA analyst Kent M Harrington Pogo TikTokamp160and Data Brokers We Have Met the Enemy and He Is UsAll comments are welcome and may be sent to the author at jeffmediavillagecomClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet

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If We Ban TikTok, Where Does It End?

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Jeff Minsky

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