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With a billion users, TikTok has rapidly become one of the most important players in the music industry, and now has its sights set on revolutionising the way artists are discovered and get paid.

Tolga Akmen | Afp | Getty Images

TikTok recently launched a new rival to music-streaming giants Spotify and Apple Music, as the popular short video app seeks new avenues for growth.

TikTok Music said on Wednesday that it will be testing its service in Australia, Mexico and Singapore. That announcement comes shortly after it launched in Indonesia and Brazil earlier this month.

Last week, TikTok also announced an expanded licensing agreement with Warner Music Group, as it looks to grow its music content library. Parent company ByteDance also recently scrapped the free tier of Resso, another music-streaming service it owns.

While these efforts are in their early days, analysts said TikTok has key advantages that other music-streaming entrants do not possess and that could help it seize market share.

“There’s already this large installed base of users which TikTok can convert into paying TikTok Music subscribers – with a relatively low customer acquisition cost,” said Jonathan Woo, senior research analyst at Phillip Securities Research.

According to DataReportal, Indonesia and Brazil are TikTok’s second- and third-largest markets, behind only the U.S., with 113 million and 84.1 million active TikTok users aged 18 years and above, respectively. Meanwhile, Mexico is TikTok’s fourth-largest market with 62.4 million TikTok users.

There really is not that much incentive to switch services for users already on Spotify or Apple Music as brand loyalty amongst users on these premium incumbent platforms is also very strong.

Jonathan Woo

Senior analyst, Phillip Securities Research

“TikTok Music will make it easy for [users] to save, download and share their favorite viral tracks from TikTok,” Ole Obermann, global head of music business development for TikTok, said during the Indonesia and Brazil launch.

TikTok is the second-most common source of music discovery for 16 to 19 year olds, behind YouTube, according to data from MIDiA Research shared with CNBC. MiDIA Research is a U.K.-based research firm covering entertainment and media.

If you are already in the ecosystem, and you are using TikTok that much, you might be willing to switch over.

Tatiana Cirisano

Music analyst, MiDIA Research

In MiDIA’s fourth-quarter consumer survey, 48% of respondents said YouTube is among their main places for discovering music, while 41% pointed to TikTok. The survey fielded 9,000 respondents across the U.S., U.K., Australia, Canada, Germany, France, Sweden, South Korea and Brazil.

“A lot of times people hear lots of different songs on TikTok, but they don’t make the jump to actually listen to it elsewhere or learn more about the artist,” said Tatiana Cirisano, music analyst at MiDIA Research.

“The powerful potential for TikTok Music is that it could close that gap,” said Cirisano.

Some market share

The music streaming market is currently dominated by Swedish giant Spotify and Apple Music.

Spotify commands almost 31% of the global streaming market with Apple Music following with 13.7%, according to the International Music Summit Business Report 2023.

But Cirisano said that heavy TikTok users could convert into TikTok Music users if they are using other services such as Spotify. “If you’re already in the ecosystem, and you’re using TikTok that much, you might be willing to switch over,” said Cirisano.

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Still, Woo of Phillip Securities Research said TikTok Music presents a “low risk” for Spotify and Apple Music.

“I do think that it would be quite difficult to surpass Spotify and Apple Music in terms of market share given their incumbency, but TikTok Music could definitely eat into some of it,” said Woo.

“There really is not that much incentive to switch services for users already on Spotify or Apple Music as brand loyalty amongst users on these premium incumbent platforms is also very strong,” said Woo.

He added that monthly subscription prices for all three services are expected to “be at similar price points.” In Indonesia, Spotify Premium costs 54,990 Indonesian Rupiah ($3.66) monthly while iOS users pay 49,000 Indonesia Rupiah ($3.26) a month for TikTok Music.

What is ByteDance?

“As a consumer, why should I pay a monthly fee to listen on TikTok Music, when I can listen for free on Spotify, albeit with advertisements?”

TikTok declined to comment on TikTok Music’s expansion plans. Spotify and Apple Music did not respond to CNBC’s requests for comment.

Boost growth?

TikTok has been looking for growth outside the U.S., where it faces mounting political headwinds. Its flagship app was banned in Montana, the first state to do so, as well as India. TikTok’s CEO previously said the company will pour “billions of dollars” into Southeast Asia over the next few years.

The company’s e-commerce marketplace TikTok Shop has been aggressively expanding into Southeast Asia, competing against Sea‘s Shopee and Alibaba‘s Lazada. Those e-commerce efforts also include livestream shopping.

TikTok in July said livestream shopping isn’t the only area it is looking into when asked if it is the “end destination” for TikTok’s areas of expansion.

“Shoppertainment is not the only destination, but it is definitely one of the main areas, especially in Asia Pacific that we are leaning in heavily into,” Shant Oknayan, head of business across Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa & Eastern Europe at TikTok, said during a summit in Jakarta earlier this month.

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Anne Wojcicki has a new offer to take 23andMe private, this time for $74.7 million

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Anne Wojcicki has a new offer to take 23andMe private, this time for .7 million

Anne Wojcicki attends the WSJ Magazine Style & Tech Dinner in Atherton, California, on March 15, 2023.

Kelly Sullivan | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images

23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki and New Mountain Capital have submitted a proposal to take the embattled genetic testing company private, according to a Friday filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Wojcicki and New Mountain have offered to acquire all of 23andMe’s outstanding shares in cash for $2.53 per share, or an equity value of approximately $74.7 million. The company’s stock closed at $2.42 on Friday with a market cap of about $65 million.

The offer comes after a turbulent year for 23andMe, with the stock losing more than 80% of its value in 2024. In January, the company announced plans to explore strategic alternatives, which could include a sale of the company or its assets, a restructuring or a business combination. 

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23andMe has a special committee of independent directors in place to evaluate potential paths forward. The company appointed three new independent directors to its board in October after all seven of its previous directors abruptly resigned the prior month. The special committee has to approve Wojcicki and New Mountain’s proposal.

“We believe that our Proposal provides compelling value and immediate liquidity to the Company’s public stockholders,” Wojcicki and Matthew Holt, managing director and president of private equity at New Mountain, wrote in a letter to the special committee on Thursday.

Wojcicki previously submitted a proposal to take the company private for 40 cents per share in July, but it was rejected by the special committee, in part because the members said it lacked committed financing and did not provide a premium to the closing price at the time.

Wojcicki and New Mountain are willing to provide secured debt financing to fund 23andMe’s operations through the transaction’s closing, the filing said. New Mountain is based in New York and has $55 billion of assets under management, according to its website.

23andMe declined to comment.

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Shares of Hims & Hers tumble 23% after FDA says semaglutide is no longer in shortage

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Shares of Hims & Hers tumble 23% after FDA says semaglutide is no longer in shortage

Hims & Hers

Shares of Hims & Hers Health tumbled more than 23% on Friday after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that the shortage of semaglutide injection products has been resolved.

Semaglutide is the active ingredient in Novo Nordisk‘s blockbuster weight loss drug Wegovy and diabetes treatment Ozempic. Those medications are part of a class of drugs called GLP-1s, and demand for the treatments has exploded in recent years. As a result, digital health companies such as Hims & Hers have been prescribing compounded semaglutide as an alternative for patients who are navigating volatile supply hurdles and insurance obstacles.

Compounded drugs are custom-made alternatives to brand-name drugs designed to meet a specific patient’s needs, and compounders are allowed to produce them when brand-name treatments are in shortage. The FDA doesn’t review the safety and efficacy of compounded products.

Hims & Hers began offering compounded semaglutide to patients in May, and it owns compounding pharmacies that produce the medications.

Compounded medications are typically much cheaper than their branded counterparts. Hims & Hers sells compounded semaglutide for less than $200 per month, while Ozempic and Wegovy both cost around $1,000 per month without insurance.

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The FDA said Friday that it will start taking action against compounders for violations in the next 60 to 90 days, depending on the type of facility, in order to “avoid unnecessary disruption to patient treatment.”

“Now that the FDA has determined the drug shortage for semaglutide has been resolved, we will continue to offer access to personalized treatments as allowed by law to meet patient needs,” Hims & Hers CEO Andrew Dudum posted Friday on X. “We’re also closely monitoring potential future shortages, as Novo Nordisk stated two weeks ago that it would continue to have ‘capacity limitations’ and ‘expected continued periodic supply constraints and related drug shortage notifications.'”

Him & Hers’ weight loss offerings have been a massive hit with investors. Shares of the company climbed more than 200% last year, and the stock is already up more than 100% this year despite Friday’s move.

Even before it added compounded GLP-1s to its portfolio, the company said in its 2023 fourth-quarter earnings call that it expects its weight loss program to bring in more than $100 million in revenue by the end of 2025.

Despite the turbulent regulatory landscape, Hims & Hers has showed no signs of slowing down.

On Friday, the company announced it has acquired a U.S.-based peptide facility that will “further verticalize the company’s long-term ability to deliver personalized medications.” Hims & Hers will explore advances across metabolic optimization, recovery science, biological resistances, cognitive performance and preventative health through the acquisition, the company said.

That move comes just days after Hims & Hers also bought Trybe Labs, the New Jersey-based at-home lab testing facility. Trybe Labs will allow Hims & Hers to perform at-home blood draws and more comprehensive pretreatment testing.

Hims & Hers did not disclose the terms of either deal.

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Tesla recalls more than 375,000 vehicles in U.S. due to failing power-assisted steering systems

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Tesla recalls more than 375,000 vehicles in U.S. due to failing power-assisted steering systems

Tesla models Y and 3 are displayed at a Tesla dealership in Corte Madera, California, on Dec. 20, 2024.

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Tesla is voluntarily recalling 376,241vehicles in the U.S. to correct an issue with failing power-assisted steering systems, according to records posted to the website of the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

In a safety recall report posted on the NHTSA website, Tesla said the recall includes Model 3 and Model Y vehicles that were manufactured for sale in the U.S. from Feb. 28, 2023, to October 11, 2023, and that were equipped with a certain older software release.

The records said printed circuit boards in the steering systems in affected vehicles could become overstressed, causing the power-assist steering to fail in some cases when a Tesla vehicle rolled to a stop and then accelerated.

When electronic power-assist steering systems fail in a Tesla, drivers need to exert more force to steer their cars, which can increase the risk of a collision.

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Tesla told the vehicle safety regulator that it was not aware of any crashes, injuries or deaths related to the power steering failures, and that it was offering an over-the-air software update as a remedy.

The recall follows an earlier related probe and voluntary recall in China concerning the same systems.

President Donald Trump has appointed Tesla CEO Elon Musk to lead a team that is slashing the federal government workforce, and in some cases, regulations and entire agencies. Those cuts already affected the NHTSA, an agency Musk has long seen as standing in the way of some of his ambitions at Tesla.

The regulator has been engaged in a yearslong investigation into safety defects in the systems that Tesla markets currently as its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (Supervised) options. The features do not make Tesla cars into robotaxis. They require a human driver ready to steer or brake at any time.

The Washington Post reported on Thursday that Musk’s team has led mass firings at the NHTSA, reducing the agency’s workforce and capacity to investigate companies including Tesla by about 10%.

Tesla didn’t respond to a request for comment.

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