TikTok switch to Akamai

Per these tweets, TikTok seems to have switched to Akamai completely.

https://twitter.com/GrowthStockInv1/status/13179368315021639…

https://twitter.com/cdnplanet/status/1318668876373237761?s=2…

https://www.webpagetest.org/performance_optimization.php?tes…

This might address regulatory challenges since Akamai has a huge # of PoPs around the world.

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Personally, as a recent subscriber/participant on Twitter, I see it strictly for entertainment purposes. I have described FinTwit as the investing equivalent of being at a nightclub in Ibiza as the foam machine is going full tilt, the lights have been turned off and there is nothing to see or hear except strobe lights and a heavy bass beat.

Other than those “cross over” individuals that I know and respect from this board or other forums that have a presence on FinTwit, I tend to ignore all the other DJ’s.

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Yes, agree that Fintwit is mostly unreliable.
I was relying more on the report from webpagetest.org.
Would be great if someone tech/cdn savvy here can run similar check(s) and give their input.
Thank you.

-F8

I think you’re right. I have been browsing through several different site maps within TikTok and have not been able to find a single capture of FSLY being used by TikTok and its all Akamai. Even searching for specific videos it seems to be all Akamai. So looks as either Oracle moved them over or something else which would explain the overall miss for FSLY.

I believe FSLY when doing their Q3 did take out part of the impact of TikTok revenue but if they didn’t take out a complete stop/move all together, then I believe it would be a good reason as to why their financials came in lower. Especially if other users such as lets say SHOP didn’t have as big of a quarter it would also impact FSLY. Overall, its a matter of what’s said on the call next week which will dictate the short term future for FSLY.

BarrelHaus

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Thanks a lot, BarrelHausBrewer.

Fastly has fewer POPs than AKAM & NET. High capacity strategically placed vs low capacity, larger #, widely distributed POPs. A deliberate architecture decision, one of their strengths, both tech and financially. I believe this point was discussed here 1-2 months back.
Will this be a weakness, going forward, given upcoming data protection and privacy legislations around the world? More and more countries will want data and sometimes even code to reside within their jurisdictions.
How does this affect edge computing?

I am posing this question, not just for FSLY, but to get a broader understanding of this issue.

If this was also discussed earlier, please do let me know, I will look it up.

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Lots of speculation going on. None of us know what happened… but I’ll throw out another possibility.

What if Fastly “fired” TikTok as a customer? Could have happened for any number of reasons, but imo, that’s a bullish scenario, especially if they’re confident they can backfill that revenue in a quarter or two.

I’m willing to give Fastly some time. Have plenty of years left before I’ll be withdrawing from my portfolio and I’ve tended to regret selling winners in the past.

Fastly is still a major winner.

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A couple of more possibilities ( speculations).

  1. I don’t know much about TikTok but they maybe using Akamai for some cases ( like static content) and FSLY mostly for API usage (API caching, purging).

  2. To mitigate the risk of being banned in the US, TikTok may be considering a CDN with a presence in the US and China. FSLY’s nearest PoP to China I believe is in HongKong. (I think both Akamai and CloudFlare have PoPs in China with partnership with some Chinese companies.)

Can’t wait till the 28th…too much uncertainty. Perhaps, another lesson I’m learning from Saul…but in my words…“Why not invest in a business that’s not throwing all these uncertainties and growing at the same or higher rate. If the uncertainties clear up and growth returns, I can always get in.”

Promise: No more posts on this until the 28th and I would also request all to stop speculating ( like I just did) and not clutter up this board :slight_smile:

Cheers!

ronjonb

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