US Investors To Buy TikTok As Chinese Founder Is Trying To Save The App

Currently, TikTok is under fire and at risk of being banned in the US after the banning order in India.

However, according to The Information, several investors in the US who already own a stake in ByteDance are considering buying TikTok to gain full control of the video-sharing platform. This move could reduce the US government and users’ fear of the platform handling user data to the Chinese government.

The timeline for this purchase hasn’t been finalized yet, but ByteDance CEO and founder Zhang Yiming said he would be open to the idea if that’s the best for the future of the app. The investors considering buying TikTok include Sequoia Capital and General Atlantic.

A couple of weeks ago, the Indian government banned the Chinese social app for the second time in the country, where there are more than 200 million people using the platform.

As for the United States, the country has already banned TikTok on federally-issued devices with concerns over cybersecurity threats as pointed out by Mike Pompeo, the State Secretary.

If US investors really buy TikTok, this will not only break its relation to its parent company and the Chinese government, but it would also be the right move for the app. Right now, it already has about 1,400 employees in the country, and as reported by Axios, the firm plans to hire another 10,000 people in the US for positions in content moderation, sales, engineering, as well as customer service.

Furthermore, earlier this month, the New York Times noted that the Chinese platform added more than 35 lobbyists with the aim of building ties with the current administration.

With the growing tensions between China and other nations' governments, and competitors jumping in to replace, TikTok needs to take every chance it can to survive. And this could the one chance it gets.

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