Will TikTok remain in the US or get purchased by a US company once President-elect Donald Trump is in the White House on January 20? China wants TikTok to remain under the ownership of parent ByteDance. TikTok’s US operations could be valued at around $40 billion to $50 billion, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. If TikTok US gets sold, who are the potential buyers (this time around)?
Project Liberty
Billionaire Frank McCourt and Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary — through Project Liberty — are interested in acquiring TikTok. McCourt wants to run TikTok with a focus on privacy and safer use of data.
McCourt, a former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, said in an interview that his advisers, which include the investment bank Guggenheim Securities, are valuing TikTok without its algorithm at around $20 billion. He said he had spoken with nearly “all the investors” in ByteDance. “They’re as in the dark as we are” about ByteDance’s plans, he said.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk could be in the mix to buy TikTok, reports Bloomberg. It reports: “Under one scenario that’s been discussed by the Chinese government, Musk’s X — the former Twitter — would take control of TikTok US and run the businesses together, the people said.”
With more than 170 million users in the US, TikTok may help X’s efforts to attract advertisers. Musk also founded a separate artificial intelligence company, xAI, that could benefit from the huge amounts of data generated from TikTok. In April, Musk posted on X: “In my opinion, TikTok should not be banned in the USA, even though such a ban may benefit the X platform. Doing so would be contrary to freedom of speech and expression. It is not what America stands for.”
Bobby Kotick
Former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, at some point, was interested in buying TikTok. The Wall Street Journal reports that Kotick was approaching ByteDance’s executive chair Zhang Yiming to express interest in the purchase.
Enter Xiaohongshu
American users are joining Chinese short-form video app Xiaohongshu (known as RedNote in English) in large numbers. The app has moved to the #1 spot for free apps on the US App Store and is also the top social networking app across all free iPhone apps. Further, many TikTok creators are promoting Xiaohongshu on their accounts.
Xiaohongshu originally launched in 2013 and has a layout similar to Pinterest’s; many consider it China’s answer to Instagram and it boasts a number of social shopping features.