A report suggests that ByteDance, owner of the video-sharing platform TikTok, would rather shut it down than sell it in case they ran out of options in fighting the legislation that aims to ban the platform in the United States.

The report from Reuters cited sources close to ByteDance, who said that the company isn’t keen on selling TikTok as it will include the sale of the algorithms used by the platform. The said algorithms are part of ByteDance’s overall operations.

It is said that TikTok only amounts to a small part of its parent’s total daily active users and total revenues. Hence, in case the US ban pushes through, they would rather shut it down than sell it to a potential US-based buyer.

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According to the sources, shutting down TikTok would have less impact on ByteDance’s business than selling and giving up its core algorithm.

Other sources said that ByteDance makes most of its money in apps like Douyin, which is TikTok’s equivalent in China, and uses the same core algorithm. More so, the US accounted for about 25% of TikTok’s revenues in 2023.

The majority of the US Senate is in favor of banning TikTok as they fear China could access the data of Americans and use it for surveillance. The bill was passed last Tuesday.

US President Joe Biden has already signed the bill, which gives ByteDance until January 19, 2025, to sell TikTok or have it banned completely.

Source: Reuters

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