Citing four sources at Chinese company ByteDance, Reuters reported that the company would prefer to shut down the TikTok platform it owns rather than sell it to the United States.
ByteDance has up to a year to sell US technology to non-Chinese companies or face a ban under a new law signed by President Joe Biden after approval by Congress.
According to sources interviewed by Reuters, the big problem that the company will face if it sells its popular platform is that it will also have to sell advanced algorithms that analyze users’ interests and create new profiles for them. They filter content to retain it. Stay in the app as long as possible, and these algorithms also support the parent company's other platforms.
The source also added that TikTok as a whole represents only a small part of ByteDance's business and that the platform's US shutdown will have a limited impact on it, meaning the company will keep its algorithm and not have to sell it. they.
According to sources, ByteDance's revenue will reach $120 billion in 2023, while revenue will reach about $80 billion in 2022, while active TikTok users in the United States represent only 5% of the total number of ByteDance users. Widely spread all over the world.
The sources also said that separating the company's algorithms from TikTok would be complicated. Neither ByteDance nor the Biden administration has explained how TikTok will operate as a global social media platform if the parent company decides to sell its US operations.
Former US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is reportedly considering forming an investor group in the US to make a bid for the company, according to Reuters.
The Chinese company refused to comment on the Reuters article, but it issued an official statement yesterday through its Toutiao platform, in which it denied any intention to sell the platform and confirmed that it was targeting the United States and would resort to the judiciary to take action against the new law.