TikTok has found itself in a position that no other social media app has—a pawn and a bargaining chip used in a trade war between the US and China. The US wants TikTok, but China is not willing to let it go. ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, might as well not even exist at this point. Speaking to reports on Air Force One, US President Donald Trump revealed that he plans to speak to China about buying TikTok.
Wanting to buy TikTok
According to Trump, “There’s a lot of people interested in TikTok, and I think we have a chance of doing something good. And we’ll be speaking to China about that also because they’re a party to it obviously. But it would be great to keep TikTok alive, sell it to somebody that’s going to do a great job with it.”
At the moment, TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a company based out of China. This is one of the reasons why the US government is so concerned about the social media app. The US government has cited concerns in the past about TikTok potentially collecting data on US citizens and sending it back to China.
The app was close to being banned in the US. However, Trump stepped in at the eleventh hour and issued the app a 75-day reprieve. This is, obviously, a band-aid solution. TikTok will need to either sell itself to a US company or face shutting down. That is, unless, the US and China are able to come to another type of agreement that would spare TikTok.
Trump’s statement suggests that he is confident that the US and China can come to some agreement over TikTok. But we’re not sure that’s going to happen.
Why China won’t allow it
Breaking into the Chinese market has been incredibly difficult for foreign companies. This is due to the strict regulations in place that aim to protect local interests as well as safeguarding information. This is why many Western tech firms either operate in a limited capacity in China, or don’t at all. Google is one example of that.
Now, the sale of one company to another is pretty common. However, one reason China seems invested in TikTok is because it deems TikTok’s algorithm as a “core” technology. Technologies with this kind of designation have restrictions in place when it comes to exporting or selling.
Not to mention, the current trade war between the US and China means that the last thing China wants is to have a core piece of technology owned by the US government.
