{"podcast":{"title":"Harvard Business Review","slug":"harvard-business-review-7777387","podcast_index_feed_id":7777387,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/VG7900701114","website_url":null,"image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/980142f0-0d9c-11f1-9b6f-b39130a8b54a/image/fd144eac00da8bd04368206590cf5ad8.jpg?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"HBR","episode_count":511,"summary":"At Harvard Business Review, we believe in management. If the world’s organizations and institutions were run more effectively, if our leaders made better decisions, if people worked more productively, we believe that all of us — employees, bosses, customers, our families, and the people our businesses affect — would be better off. We try to arm our readers with ideas that help them become smarter, more creative, and more courageous in their work. We encourage comments, critiques, and questions. We expect our community to be a safe space for respectful, constructive, and thought-provoking discussion. We reserve the right to remove or turn off comments at our discretion. We do not tolerate bullying, name-calling, or abusive language related to identity, including race, gender, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, age, or region; spam; copyright violation; extreme profanity; or p*rnography.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-25T12:22:10.972032+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/harvard-business-review-7777387"},"episode":{"title":"TikTok: Super App or Explosive Star? | Cold Call","slug":"tiktok-super-app-or-supernova-cold-call","published_at":"2026-06-18T10:30:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/harvard-business-review-7777387/tiktok-super-app-or-supernova-cold-call","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/harvard-business-review-7777387","url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/VG2060564426.mp3?updated=1778669488","audio_url":"https://traffic.megaphone.fm/VG2060564426.mp3?updated=1778669488","summary":"TikTok: Super App or Supernova? | Cold Call 31 May 2023 --- TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, was launched in 2012 around the simple idea of helping users entertain themselves on their smartphones while on the Beijing Subway. By May 2020, TikTok operated in 155 countries and, together with Douyin (its China app), it had roughly one billion monthly active users, placing it in the top ranks of digital platforms globally. Some industry experts argued that it was the first consumer app operating at scale where artificial intelligence (or AI) was the product. But TikTok had drawn the attention of competitors, regulators, and politicians — especially in the U.S., where commercial success was critical to its long-term enterprise value. With less than two percent of its global revenue generated in the U.S., should the company continue to drive growth there or focus on monetizing that audience by introducing revenue generating activities like advertising? Would TikTok become the first “Super App” with a global footprint or, if it moved too fast, did it run the risk of becoming a supernova that shone brightly only for a passing moment? Harvard Business School senior lecturer Jeffrey Rayport discusses these strategic challenges in his case, “TikTok in 2020: Super App or Supernova?” (https://hbsp.harvard.edu/product/821087-PDF-ENG) This episode originally aired on Cold Call on November 30, 2021. You can also listen to this episode on HBR.org, and wherever you listen to podcasts: - HBR.org (transcript available here): https://hbr.org/podcast/2021/11/tiktok-super-app-or-supernova - Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tiktok-super-app-or-supernova/id1156646189?i=1000543501852 - Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7sXMWrcZdvxpnWzMbvt5dC?si=5136c1dcbe3e4e53 -…","meta_description":"TikTok: Super App or Supernova? | Cold Call 31 May 2023 --- TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, was launched in 2012 around the simple idea of helping use…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2028,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/harvard-business-review-7777387/episodes/tiktok-super-app-or-supernova-cold-call/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/harvard-business-review-7777387/tiktok-super-app-or-supernova-cold-call.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}