Just days after the Big Tech Antitrust hearing, talks of a TikTok take over steals the headline following the continued scrutiny of the Chinese video app from the Trump administration. US lawmakers have voiced concerns with TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance and their unregulated data-sharing practices regarding American users. Their solution? To push a sale from current owner, ByteDance into a new American ownership. *cha-chiiiing*
THIS JUST IN:
The latest update of the potential deal, following a phone call between Microsoft CEO and the American President suggests Trump is swaying towards the sell rather than banning the app in the US, as he expects to see a portion of the price to go to the American government for making the acquisition possible. *double cha-chiiiing*
Trump has threatened a number of “possibilities” for TikTok, from banning the app completely in the US (one of the app’s largest markets) to forcing them to part with Chinese owner, ByteDance.
If it wasn’t for Zuckerberg’s intense grilling at the Big Tech Antitrust hearing following accusations that Facebook “copy, acquires and kills competitors” in order to illegally maintain control over the social media market, rumoured interest from Microsoft may have faced some tough competition.
US Tech Giant, Microsoft are fundamentally established in the business technology market, but the potential acquisition of TikTok could give them a wider scope in the social media market, not to mention a B2C social media presence alongside their professional platform, LinkedIn.
The majority of TikTok’s 800 million users are primarily of a younger demographic, specifically teens to twenties - a market Microsoft have already found a foot in the door with due to its gaming platform, Xbox.
The value of TikTok for US acquisition has been estimated between $15 - $30bn, according to The Financial Times. The price of the latest social media sensation doesn’t come cheap, but for one lucky US company could result in the deal of a lifetime.
