DEMOCRAT GAZETTE: Soap opera for digital age

Over the last few weeks President Donald Trump has let his frustration fly loose, with a number of targets, as usual. One of those targets is the popular video-sharing app TikTok.

The kids love it. The Red Chinese love that the kids love it. The president hates that communist China owns it. It’s kind of a soap opera for the digital age.

Trump told everyone TikTok had 45 days to find a US buyer, or he’d shut it down. We’re not sure how that would work since it lives in the digital realm, but presumably his administration would try to find a way.

But now there are a few buyers who have voiced interest, and one of them is right here in Arkansas: Big Blue in Bentonville.

“Walmart said on Thursday that it’s teaming up with Microsoft in a bid for TikTok. Walmart spokesperson Randy Hargrove declined to say how the two companies would split ownership of TikTok, if they had the winning bid, and whether the retailer would be the majority owner,” CNBC reported.

It might seem a tad strange that the place you go to buy your groceries and get your oil changed is suddenly interested in purchasing a video-sharing app. But for those keeping their eye on Walmart strategies it fits the playbook nicely.

Walmart has spent the last several years building up its online shopping and e-commerce, all in the name of competing against the king of the online mountain, Amazon.

If Walmart and Microsoft do buy TikTok and split the spoils, that’s millions of users they can advertise to and leverage against Jeff Bezos’s company in Seattle. And as the big boys compete to bring their ideas to the market, the rest of us win. What a country. /Little Rock, August 30