From Tokyo, Japan and New Plymouth, New Zealand – this is Down to Business English. With your hosts Skip Montreux and Samantha Vega. Tell me Samantha, how many hours of sleep do you get every night? Oh, Skip — I take my sleep very seriously. I consider it essential for maintaining good health. I know, you’re a little bit fanatical about it. I wouldn’t say fanatical, just practical. So how many hours do you get? Eight hours. Eight hours?!! No more, no less. I’m very strict about it.
Wow. I can’t remember the last time I slept eight hours in a row. How many do you get? I know you don’t get enough. I would say on average I get four to six. That is just not enough. What’s preventing you from getting more? Really, there’s no excuse for that. Well, I am a little embarrassed to admit this Samantha, but as I lie in bed, instead of falling asleep, I fall into the trap of doom scrolling for an hour or so. Doom scrolling? You’ve got to be kidding me!
You just lie there in bed scrolling through TikTok or YouTube videos? Yeah, main … mainly YouTube. You’ve got to cut that out. Just another example of how harmful social media can be. Are you telling me that you never doom scroll? You never find yourself wasting time scrolling through Facebook or Instagram? Ah. I enjoy scrolling through my Facebook newsfeeds as much as the next person and looking at YouTube.
But I have enough self-control that I don’t let it cut into my sleep, and I definitely don’t do it just before I go to bed. So you use Facebook and YouTube. Not TikTok? Yes, Facebook. I know that dates me a bit. I don’t even have a TikTok account. Huh. Neither do I actually. But TikTok just happens to be at the center of today’s report. And why would that be? Today on Down to Business English, I want to report on the incredible developments in the United States over TikTok. Oh yes, that’s right.
TikTok has been banned in the US, or is about to be banned. The US government has indeed given ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, a deadline to either sell TikTok to a US company or face a ban. If they don’t comply, TikTok will be removed from the Apple and Android app stores. How is this going to work? We will get into all of that. Well, sounds very interesting. I want to hear all about how the US government is going to go about banning a company from doing business.
So let’s do it. Let’s get D2B … Down to Business with the US TikTok Ban: what you need to know. I don’t know how necessary this is, but just in case some of our listeners are not familiar with TikTok, maybe we should start by quickly talking about its history and explaining what TikTok actually is. Good idea. TikTok is a wildly popular social media platform that excels at creating and sharing short-form videos.
It launched in September 2017 and has since grown to over one billion active monthly users worldwide. It caught on very quickly, didn’t it? It did. In the US alone, there are over 170 million active TikTok users. And what has made it such a successful app? A few different things. Its easy-to-use interface, its wide range of video editing tools, and the viral nature of its content. In other words, the secret sauce of its algorithm.
Yes. Somehow TikTok’s algorithm manages to get videos noticed by a large number of people very quickly. Okay, that is a good synopsis of what TikTok is. Now, I have read headlines about this US ban on the app, but as I don’t live in the United States nor am I a TikTok user, I’m not really up to speed on the issue. What can you tell us about this US TikTok ban? At the heart of the story is the fact that TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, is a Chinese company.
And for a variety of reasons, that fact does not sit well with American politicians. But is TikTok considered a Chinese company? Technically no, it’s not. The parent company, ByteDance is Chinese, but TikTok itself was incorporated in the Cayman Islands and is officially headquartered in Singapore and Los Angeles. In addition to that, it has offices all around the world in New York, London, Dublin, Paris, Berlin, Dubai, Jakarta, Seoul, and Tokyo.
So, it’s very much a global company and is available everywhere. Yes, but one place that TikTok is not available is in China. That is a little strange. Even though their parent company is Chinese, TikTok is not available in China. Instead of TikTok, Chinese users have access to a different app, Douyin. Douyin was also developed by ByteDance, and was launched in China a year before TikTok was released internationally. Douyin was the precursor to TikTok. Very much so.
And the algorithm that helps TikTok perform so well as a video sharing app is based on Douyin’s algorithm. Ah. So even though TikTok is not technically a Chinese company, the technology behind it is very much Chinese. Precisely. But saying TikTok is not a Chinese company, regardless of where it's officially based, is like saying a Starbucks in Italy is an Italian coffee shop. Hmm. I don’t know if that is the best analogy. However I do agree.
It’s difficult to claim TikTok is not a Chinese company. But the TikTok ban in the US can’t just be because of their relationship with China. Or is it? Pretty much, yeah it is. How can that be? Other Chinese companies operate in the US. Why is the US government singling out TikTok? The US congress is worried that ByteDance, being a Chinese company, would be compelled by the Chinese government to turn over user information on US citizens using TikTok. All 170 million of them?
Why would ByteDance do that? Well, with the way Chinese law is written, the government does have a lot of influence on Chinese companies. The potential for ByteDance sharing, or being forced to share user data with the Chinese communist party does exist. Well, that is a valid concern on the US government’s part then. Perhaps. But TikTok has pointed out that they don’t collect any more user data than American social media companies like Facebook or Instagram.
There is absolutely nothing stopping those American companies from selling their user’s data to the Chinese government. Right. From that perspective, it does seem like TikTok is being singled out. And then there is the concern that Beijing could pressure ByteDance to manipulate TikTok's powerful algorithms to amplify pro-China messages to American users. Influencing American public opinion toward China. That is the concern, yes.
I don’t know, Skip. It seems like a bit of an overreaction by the US Congress. Is this ban a done deal yet? Yes. Both the House of Representatives and the Senate have passed the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, and President Biden signed it into law on April 24th. PAFACA? That is a terrible acronym. Yes, it is a terrible acronym. Let’s just call it the TikTok law Okay, good idea. How does the TikTok law work?
The law essentially gives ByteDance a deadline to divest its ownership of TikTok's U.S. operations. By divest, you mean they have to sell TikTok to an American company? Exactly. And if ByteDance fails to divest by the deadline, TikTok will be banned nationwide in the United States. How can the US government implement a ban? Are they going to order each of those 170 million US users to delete the app from their devices? Well practically, that is not possible.
But they can mandate Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores. Slowly, over time, the versions of the app users have on their devices will be out of date. This is a pretty aggressive move by the U.S. government. I can't recall a time when they have forced a foreign company to sell off a major platform like this before. Well, something like this has never happened before. It is unprecedented. I can’t imagine that TikTok is taking this sitting down.
What has their reaction been to the ban? Both TikTok and ByteDance have already filed a legal challenge against the law. They are arguing that it violates constitutional rights like free speech. I can certainly see their point. But what happens if they lose that legal challenge? They will have to sell? Could they even sell? I mean, who could even afford to buy TikTok? Finding a buyer who has deep enough pockets is going to be difficult, there is no doubt about that.
Big tech companies like Meta, Google, and Amazon who do have that kind of money would face antitrust hurdles in acquiring TikTok. Due to their already dominant positions in the social media space. But I think it’s a moot point. A moot point? Yeah, ByteDance has stated that they would rather shut TikTok operations in the US down than sell it. Really.
And even if they did change their minds and were able to find a US party to buy TikTok, Chinese export laws would prevent the new owners from getting their hands on the coveted TikTok algorithm that has made the app so successful. None of this sounds very positive. What about all the US TikTok users? They must be very concerned. They are up in arms, and not just because they will be losing a source of entertaining videos. What do you mean?
According to a TikTok report, there are 7 million small businesses in the US who use TikTok to drive revenue. And that revenue in 2023 amounted to $15 billion. I see why they would be up in arms. Losing a revenue stream like TikTok is going to be a disaster for their businesses. It is quite funny that President Biden, who is up for reelection this year, would sign into law something that could result in Americans losing their jobs.
What is even funnier is that Biden has his own presidential TikTok account. He opened it in an attempt to attract young voters and look cool. Oh my gosh, I saw the videos, I know. And it is quite absurd. So what is your take on this Skip? Do you think the US government is right to ban TikTok? Absolutely, 100%, no way, no. I can understand their concerns, but there are other ways to deal with them than by banning TikTok.
What really incenses me, makes me very angry, is the impact this is going to have on small businesses who rely on TikTok to promote their goods and services. For that fact alone, I find this ban quite reprehensible. For someone who doesn’t even have a TikTok account, you seem to have quite the strong opinion there. I do. But before I get too steamed up about this, I think it is time for you and I to get D2V … Down to Vocabulary.
First up on D2V today is the phrasal verb ‘to cut something out.’ When you cut something out, you stop doing something, or you remove an activity from your normal routine. Especially if that activity is a bad habit or something that you want to stop because it is not good for you. In the introduction of our story today, I advised Skip to cut out doom scrolling before bed.
In other words, I was suggesting that he should stop the very bad habit of endlessly scrolling through meaningless social media posts. Not a healthy habit at all. No, it isn’t. And you can use this phrasal verb in many different situations not just bad habits before bed. Can you give us a business example using ‘cut something out’? Sure. There is a trend these days of companies cutting out unnecessary meetings.
Very often, too much time is wasted in meetings so managers are trying to cut them out in order to improve productivity. That’s a perfect example — death by meeting. My office started making an effort to cut out unnecessary meetings. I have to agree, it saves a lot of time and everyone seems to be much more productive.
Next up, let's take a look at another phrasal verb that also uses ‘cut’ as the main verb but a different preposition — 'to cut into something.' It is always amazing to me how one tiny preposition can change the meaning. It must be so confusing for second language learners. I know, and English is full of phrasal verbs. So what does ‘to cut into something’ mean? When A cuts into B, A reduces the amount of B. And B, the object in the statement, is usually a resource like time or money.
Often it is, yes. But not always. In the introduction to today’s episode, Samantha told me that she too spends time doom scrolling, but that she never lets it cut into her sleep. In other words, she doesn’t let doom scrolling reduce the amount of sleep she gets. So, 'to cut something out' means to completely stop doing something. 'To cut into something' means to reduce the amount of something valuable, such as time, money, sleep, or other resources. That’s right.
Samantha, can you give us a business example using 'cut into something'? Absolutely. Earlier this month some major announcements came out of the AI industry from OpenAi and Google. I did hear about those. Major improvements to Google’s Gemini. And OpenAi has released ChatGPT 4o. I understand they do some amazing things. Well, Gemini and GPT 4o may be capable of amazing things, but AI in general is cutting into too many professions and I fear we will all be out of work in a decade or sooner.
Oh. A very gloomy example. Sorry. Shall we move on? Yes. What is our next word? The verb ‘excel.’ When you excel at something you do it extremely well or you are exceptionally good at it. Excel is often used when talking about someone who performs particularly well in a certain area or activity and is probably better at it than others. In today’s episode, Skip mentioned how TikTok excels at creating and sharing short-form videos.
In other words, TikTok is very, very, very good at helping people produce this type of content and is better at it than Instagram or Facebook or YouTube. Can you give us a business example using ‘excel’, Skip? A common place you will hear this word is in a job performance review. For instance, your manager might praise you for excelling in your work responsibilities. Or if you are the manager you could say something like “Skip, you excel at motivating your team.
I just wish you could get things done by your deadlines.” To which I could reply, “Sorry Samantha. If there is one thing I don’t excel at, it’s meeting a deadline.” Our final word for D2V today is the idiom to have deep pockets. This idiom is used to describe someone or an organization that has a lot of money or financial resources. We often keep our money in our pockets. So, if you have a lot of money you need to have deep pockets to carry it around. That is a good mental image.
In our episode, Skip mentioned that finding a buyer with deep enough pockets to purchase TikTok would be difficult. In other words, finding a buyer with enough money to buy TikTok would be difficult. Big tech companies like Meta, Google, and Amazon who do have deep pockets, might not be interested because acquiring TikTok would create antitrust issues Can you give us another example using ‘deep pockets’? Most startup companies seek funding from venture capitalists who have deep pockets.
A venture capital firm with deep pockets, like Sequoia Capital or Andreessen Horowitz, they can ensure that the startup will have enough capital to grow their business. It would be nice to have deep pockets. I would imagine so. But I am more familiar with having the opposite of deep pockets. What would that be? Empty pockets. Would you like to help D2B reach more people wanting to improve their Business English skills?
Be sure to follow D2B on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or any place podcasts are found. While you are there, leave a rating and a review and tell everyone how much you enjoy the show. Thanks for that report on the US ban on TikTok, Skip. It is a pretty serious situation that has a lot of implications for a wide range of people. It does. TikTok owners, TikTok users, and any foreign company doing business in the US. We will have to see what the result of the lawsuit turns out to be.
It’s not over for TikTok yet. Very true. D2B Members, the Bonus vocabulary for today’s episode is in the pipeline and will be released soon on your Members-only RSS feed. The words and phrases we will focus on in that Bonus D2V episode will be: in a row, secret sauce, a precursor, a moot point, and reprehensible. If you are not already subscribed to your Members-only RSS feed, be sure to visit your Member account on the D2B website and get that feed.
All you need to do is copy and paste it into the podcatcher of your choice. And if you are not a D2B member, do consider becoming one. As a D2B member, you receive all the bonus content — bonus Vocabulary episodes as well as Member-only episodes — not to mention access to our new interactive audio scripts, which are a great way to listen to episodes and follow along with the script in real time. The interactive audio scripts are also a great tool for shadowing practice as well. They are.
So that’s bonus content, interactive audio scripts, and complete access to our audio script library of PDFs. Not to mention, D2B Memberships are a great way to support the show and they really do help us produce more content on a regular basis. To become a D2B member today, just go to d2benglish.com/membership and sign up today. That’s d2benglish.com/membership. Thanks for listening everyone. See you next time. Take care. Down to Business English...
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