TikTok deal near as potential buyers emerge as frontrunners days before Trump deadline

President Trump has announced that the deal for ByteDance to sell its US TikTok business to a potential buyer could be completed before the April 5 deadline. With 170 million users in the US and 1.3 million content creators, there was a lot of worry that banning the app in the US would cause people to lose income, but that situation looks as though it’ll be averted.

In 2024, a law with bipartisan support was passed in the US. It required TikTok to be divested by the Chinese firm ByteDance by January 19. This didn’t happen and TikTok went away for a little bit before coming back and President Trump gave ByteDance until April 5 to divest its US TikTok business.

Speaking to the media, Trump said that there is a lot of interest in TikTok from potential buyers and that front-runners have emerged - a group made up of Blackstone, Susquehanna International Group, and General Atlantic.

Due to China’s political system, there are a lot of connections between businesses in the country and the ruling Communist Party of China. America claims that TikTok’s Chinese owners answer to the Chinese government and deems this unacceptable as it creates national security concerns. According to Reuters, the White House has been involved with the talks to an unprecedented level and is essentially playing the part of an investment bank.

If no deal is reached in April, content creators may not need to worry because Trump has already expressed a willingness to extend the deadline further to improve the chances of a sale. To encourage the Chinese government to push the deal forward, Trump has said he may “give them a little reduction in tariffs or something”. J.D. Vance also said he expects the general terms of an agreement by April 5.

TikTok is a big deal in the United States, just like many other places around the world. Around half the country is consuming content there and around 1.3 million content creators are trying to make money there. It has also been groundbreaking with its short form video content, pushing Google and Meta to host similar features in their apps. Hopefully, we get a resolution soon so that creators have more certainty.

Source: Reuters | Image via Depositphotos.com