Happy Friday! Not a great way to start the weekend, but important nonetheless: A new detailed report Alarming rise in cancer among women under 65. While breast cancer remains the biggest risk, lung cancer cases are on the rise.
In today’s big story, time is running out for TikTok sale or prohibition period it’s only a few days away.
What’s on deck
Markets: When it comes to your 2025 investment strategy, size shouldn’t matter.
Technical: Meta’s aggressive approach to poor performers it’s a nod to Amazon’s playbook.
Business: Rationalization. Direction. Reduction of force. Companies are using confusing language to mask job cuts.
But first, we can’t keep sliding.
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The big story
Tick tock for TikTok
Gearstd/iStock, Tyler Le/BI
TikTok’s About You page may soon be for no one.
The social media platform is days away from closing in the USA thanks to a the law of sale or distraint passed in April.
Or is she?
To quickly recap: A law requires ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, to sell its US operations to a non-Chinese owner by Sunday.
However, anything beyond the above statement is unclear, as Business Insider’s Peter Kafka explains.
There are some murky and conflicting reports on everything from how the law will be enforced to what will happen to TikTok if it isn’t sold and the app’s potential solutions. Peter destroyed all possible scenarios.
Two central figures in the TikTok saga are the Supreme Court and President-elect Donald Trump.
With the first, TikTok argued that the law violates the First Amendment. (Give me mindless daily videos, or give me death.) However, legal experts told BI that the app’s argument might not have been good enough for it get the higher court to intervene instead.
Then there’s Trump. Despite once supporting a ban on TikTok, the incoming president has done a 180.
He is now much more supportive of the app, even inviting CEO Shou Chew to attend his inauguration. Some Democratic lawmakers are cheering for Trump about his efforts on TikTok.
But as Peter points out, there are still questions about what Trump, even as president, can do to prevent the ban.
photography/Getty, Richard Drury/Getty, Imgorthand/Getty, Tyler Le/BI
Meanwhile, the world keeps moving. One way or another.
Americans are being stubborn, resourceful, or a combination of both as they seek to scratch their itch on social media.
RedNote, which is basically the Chinese version of Instagram, is growing in popularity in the US. The irony is that Americans are basically thumbing their nose at the US government jumping on another Chinese-owned app, writes BI’s Katie Notopoulos.
RedNote has become so popular that Duolingo told BI it has seen growth of 216%. new Mandarin learners in the US.
If TikTok is indeed going away for good starting Sunday, there could be more winners in the US as users continue to search for a new home. And wherever self-appointed “TikTok refugees” land, ad dollars can follow.
Some big names may just gobble up more business, according to Wall Street analysts, but emerging platforms like Reddit and Trade Desk may also benefitwrites BI’s Kelly Cloonan.
As for content creators who have built businesses on TikTok, it’s a different lesson on the importance of diversification.
News summary
Main headlines
3 things in the market
Getty Images; Chelsea Jia Feng
1. America’s economic exclusion is going nowhere. If you’re wondering if US market dominance peaked in 2024 – when US GDP approached $30 trillion and dwarfed both the Eurozone and China – the answer is no. JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs both urged investors that bet on the red, white and blue this year.
2. Dutch Bros, Tempur-Sealy and Mattel make the cut. UBS made its case for small and mid-caps, with analysts noting how smaller firms outperformed their larger peers by 2% a year over the long term. Interest rate cuts are not in the forecast after last month’s jobs report, but UBS still had some Top picks for smaller stocks to buy.
3. Six shocks that could rock markets in 2025. It’s hard to predict surprises, but that doesn’t stop some strategists from trying. From a global internet outage to another year of 20% stock gains, here are the twists Bank of America thinks it can shock investors.
3 things in technology
Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket lifts off from Launch Complex 36 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. John Raoux/AP
1. The Musk-Bezos space race. Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin successfully sent its New Glenn rocket into orbit on Thursday. Its competitor SpaceX ran it the seventh Starship launch later that day, but the mega-missile suddenly went out of communication and exploded after taking off. The pressure is mounting in both Bezos and Musk, as they prepare for Trump’s return to the White House.
2. Amazon’s RTO headaches. The company’s five-day back-to-office mandate is off to a rough start thanks to a lack of office space. Several employees told BI that the rollout was fraught with problems such as a lack of desks and meeting rooms and workplace theft. Plus, they are still on video chat.
3. Times, they’re a-changin’ — and Big Tech workers are paying the price. Meta and Microsoft are embracing Amazon’s brutal management style, prioritizing lean, high-performing teams over employee retention. “The main trend is that corporations think they have more power on their employees,” a former Google employee told BI.
3 things in business
Meta is among the companies using corporate jargon to describe the job cuts. Alex Wong/Getty Images; Chelsea Jia Feng/BI
1. Unrepentant dismissal (NAME): a euphemistic term for layoffs. Many companies do their best not to call job cuts for what they are. But whether it’s “entitlement adjustment,” “rationalization,” or Meta’s latest phrase “forgetting not regretting,” the corporate jargon of job cuts does not soften the blow on employees.
2. Justin Baldoni is suing Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, seeking $400 million in damages. The director of “It Ends with Me”. filed a 179-page lawsuit on Thursdayaccusing his actor of hijacking the film and ruining his reputation. Lively has previously accused Baldoni of sexual harassment and trying to smear her in the press, claims Baldoni has denied.
3. All singles (young people). Gen Z adults are the loneliest and least optimistic generation, a new survey has found. It’s not just young Americans who have fewer social connections. More time alone and young people marrying later are also factors. Boomers, on the other hand, are on a different wavelength.
In other news
- IMF World Economic Outlook Update Launched.
- Senate committee hearing on Kristi Noem, Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security.
- China releases quarterly GDP data.
The Insider Today team: Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Grace Lett, editor, in Chicago. Ella Hopkins, Associate Editor, London. Hallam Bullock, senior editor, London. Amanda Yen, associate editor, in New York. Elizabeth Casolo, friend, in Chicago.
