Five Things Tech: Search, TikTok, Drones, European Resilience, Silicon Valley Reality
It's Tech Saturday.
Heya, thanks for reading this mail!
This week was obviously about TikTok and the proposed ban in the USA. What do you think about it? I have made up my mind.
TikTok directly relates to the big challenge of European resilience. For a long time Europe has relied on their friends in the US while simultaneously hoping that both Russia and China would be nice to us. It’s safe to say that Russia and China first and foremost act in their own interest and Europe now realizes that it has to act. It feels a bit like Europe doesn’t really know how to act, because that involves finding its own path and putting its own interests first. But what are those interests when it comes to tech?
Read about these issues and three more in this newsletter!
Google's Gen AI Search Threatens Publishers With $2B Annual Ad Revenue Loss
Imagine for a second how the search experience changes when AI comes into the mix and offers you one answer and maybe include some footnotes linking to the sources. You will less likely feel the need to click on a link. This will cost publishers lot of revenue. I doubt they will change their product offering to react to this any time soon.
The U.S. Wants to Ban TikTok for the Sins of Every Social Media Company
Banning TikTok is not as easy as it sounds, but I do think Western liberal societies should take into account the thread that TikTok could pose if China wanted to use TikTok to influence the public on certain issues. In Germany we never really dealt with Russian propaganda and it heavily influenced public opinion. I think that we should be very strict about the ownership and the influence of these platforms in order to protect our democracies.
Drone Swarms Are About to Change the Balance of Military Power
DefenseTech is so important right now and we see it live on our screens during the coverage of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. Drones play such an important role in this and the software and hardware is getting more and more sophisticated quickly.
Investing in European Resilience: Navigating the New Geopolitical and Technological Landscape
Uwe addresses some key points to increase the European resiliance, but I doubt that too many people at the moment understand that we have to act quickly and that we cannot rely on the US to protect Europe for an indefinite time. Obviously, startups should play a major role in this process, but as Uwe points out, governments need to understand that they have to work together with startups in the future and use their products instead of “just” investing in them through funds of funds.
The Messy Reality Behind a Silicon Valley Unicorn
Shocking! Young companies that get a lot of funding can get into the habit of caring about their investors more than they care about their product and their customers. That’s why I emphasize the importance of getting paying customers right away and not relying only on fundraising.
That’s all for now! Thanks for reading!
— Nico