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When I ran MTV, I realized something terrifying: The audience didnāt want their MTV anymore. They wanted to be MTV.
āSean Atkins, CEO, Dhar Mann Studios (formerly with MTV) |
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| Every year, we partner with CES to produce some of their conference sessions. This year, weāll be producing High Tech Retail, Entrepreneur and Finance, Wearables, and of course, the Creator Space. This graphic shows some of the great minds who will be joining us. Drop us a line if you plan to attend. If you missed last weekās Virtual Events Group CES Preview, you can rewind it here. |
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| How was your year? Iām reliving mine through the eyes of every online service Iāve ever used. They know way too much about me, but hopefully Iām more than the sum of my social posts. The flood of 2025 wrap-up reports seems unabated. Ouch! Spotify decided that my music tastes are those of an old soul, an 82-year-old, with lots of Beatles, John Prine, 50ās music, and kids songs. |
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According to Google Photos, my grandson sucked up the photo storage, but it liked my Berlin and South Africa travel highlights. Google Maps logs the miles as I run circles between my far-flung kids. Google Fit summarized my steps and sleep (or lack thereof). Even NYT Games is impressed with my commitment to Wordle. LinkedIn remembers my first 2003 connection (hereās looking at you @josh weinberg) and my most regular connection. That's you, Mr. Louderback. YouTube tells me what Iāve watched, and when Iām being watched.
When did year-end wraps get so prolific? And how do you reconcile what these services know about you with who you believe you are? On the plus side, itās like having your own personal life historian. On the minus side? It's fortunate that I donāt have much to hide. How ābout you? What was your most surprising year-end wrap-up? |
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| All the Presidentās Friends |
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As we head into the New Year, not unexpectedly, but still very much a āwhat could this even meanā moment, is that ByteDance, the China-based parent company of TikTok, has agreed to hand over the reins of TikTok US to a bunch of people who are not Chinese, but are very much a part of the Trump inner circle. The big question? Which owners can do more damage?
The brouhaha started years ago when US government officials became convinced that ByteDanceās ties to China would leave the US open to misuse of our citizenās data or subject to Chinese-backed misinformation campaigns.
The remedy would be that TikTok in the Americas could not be owned and operated by a Chinese company. Itās hard to say how much the Chinese government interfered with or feasted on American data, but itās not hard to see that the remedy for Chinese ownership rewards our current Presidentās cronies. |
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Together, the Ellisons and the equity investors who are about to take over TikTok US are already heavily involved in Paramount SkyDance and well on their way to building a media empire that could amp up data collection of American citizens and tamp down the type of content that TikTok and Paramount SkyDance might offer.
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| Is anyone connecting the dots? The non-Chinese TikTok overloads include Larry Ellison, Executive Chairman and Chief Technology Officer of Oracle, SilverLake, a global equity firm, and MGX Abu Dhabi, a UAE equity firm. SilverLake and MGX will bankroll, presumably with board positions and some decision clout, but no operational duties. |
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Larry Ellison is all about data. Heās bet big on making his next fortune by powering AI farms and gobbling up public data. Under the new U.S. ownership, it's Oracle thatās expected to host and operate TikTokās U.S. data and core algorithm workloads on its cloud infrastructure.
Adjacent to Oracle/TikTok, youāve probably been following Larryās nepo-son David, now owner of Paramount SkyDance (thanks to FCC approval for its merger). Ellison the younger, heavily backed by Dad, is now making a hostile bid for Warner Brothers. Young Ellison also recently bought The Free Press, a right-leaning publication, led by Bari Weiss. He quickly installed her as the
editor-in-chief of CBS News, and just this week, she cancelled a 60 Minutes segment that looked at deportations. ā
Seemingly overnight, the Ellisons have barged into the big media arena. Dad mining the data and son bending media properties into his image. Larry and David, both big Trump supporters, are building a new kind of media company with a clear POV about what we should be viewing. I cannot get that old Sicilian proverb, āthe enemy that you know,ā out of my head. The Ellisons
can shape the face of media a lot more and a lot faster than ByteDance ever did. |
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| Mindboggling Fact |
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| Forty-three percent of Americans aged 18 to 29 get their news from TikTok. We also spend more time, on average, with TikTok (54 minutes per day) than with friends (35 minutes). |
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Creating Creatives
Need an end-of-year creativity boost? Listen to John Cleeseās always fun talk from 1991, where he admits that telling people how to be creative is easy, but being creative is difficult.
Last Minute Tech Gifts
Tech doesnāt need to cost a fortune and itās always appreciated (even if youāre a late-gifter). For the events attender in your life, here are a few last-minute gifts theyāll love.
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A Second Monitor
One monitor no longer does the trick. Youāre on a Zoom call and need to share a doc? Youāre in a doc but need to do research? This little monitor from Arzopa is lightweight, cheap ($60), and easily packable. |
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Looking Cool
After serious consideration, I decided I was too cheap to buy anyone the newer version of the Meta Ray Bans. V2 is basically just lighter and a little faster. Instead, I opted for Version 1.0 now. The deals are still on, with Gen 1 selling for about $250. And youāll look just as cool.
A Tasker
Yes, TaskRabbit offers gift certificates. Get some tech support for someone you love, and they might stop bothering you. Itās the gift that keeps giving.
Silly but Functional
This Bluetooth music-playing light-up wool hat from Light in the Box is always appreciated. |
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| And from all of us, to all of you: |
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Enjoy the holiday season, and may you
and yours flourish in the New Year. |
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