ByteDance founder and CEO, Zhang Yiming has shared he is open to selling off ByteDance’s phenomenally successful video app, TikTok, if that is what is best for its future. The Information reported this some time ago and recently updated that the company’s investors in the US may collaborate with ByteDance’s top management to buy a majority stake in Tik Tok.
That means the investor group would own a majority stake, with ByteDance possibly still owning a minority stake.
There is even less certainty if this move can reverse the video app’s fortunes; first it was banned in India where many alternatives have quickly moved to replace it in the hearts and minds of Indian users. Second, it is under continued pressure by the US government with a vote last week barring all federal employees from downloading the popular app.
The possibility of a US-wide ban is constantly in the horizon, but Axios has reported a Tik Tok spokersperson as saying they plan to hire 10,000 headcount over the next 3 years.
Due to perceived privacy and security risks associated with a number of Chinese-made apps, Tik Tok being one of them, may even have to consider being acquired by a US company.
IT BYTES BACK! says: If any of these two (or other) methods to distance Tik Tok from its Chinese roots and ByteDance is the way forward, won’t it require nothing less than surgical precision to remove and separate from their technologies and engineering resources also?
Is that possible?
