TikTok might be banned soon in the US. And as the potential TikTok ban looms, several big names have publicly expressed their interest in buying TikTok, should the platform eventually be forced to sell.
Yes, you read that right. That means there’s a chance that someone might pull an “Elon Musk” on TikTok, and TikTok could become just like X — owned by a sole individual.
TLDR: Why TikTok Might be Banned Soon in the US and Potentially Sold
If you’ve yet to hear, a group of US lawmakers introduced a bill this month barring platforms controlled by Chinese technology company ByteDance from US app stores or web hosting services. These ByteDance-controlled platforms will only be allowed if they are no longer linked to China.
Unfortunately, TikTok — the video streaming platform that everyone is on these days — is one of, if not the most prominent, ByteDance-controlled platform that risks being barred owing to this bill.
The new bill gives ByteDance roughly six months to divest TikTok. In other words, to sell TikTok. Or, in Singaporean XMM terms, to break up with TikTok.
Still curious about the potential TikTok ban in the US? You can find out more here.
Kevin O’Leary’s Interest in Buying TikTok
When you hear that a chiobu‘s relationship is in jeopardy, the natural instinct is for you to sit and wait to snap up the chiobu once she’s single.
It’s the same for this potential TikTok ban, except the chiobu being eyed in this situation is TikTok.
Since the introduction of the bill, several big names have publicly expressed their interest in buying TikTok, should the platform eventually be sold as a result of the bill. One such name is Canadian businessman Kevin O’Leary — you might recognise him from the popular TV show Shark Tank.
Perhaps owing to all his experience on Shark Tank, the businessman has truly mastered the art of surprise — O’Leary revealed his interest in buying TikTok during a Fox News interview when asked how the TikTok ban would affect the small business community.
In response to the question, O’Leary said that TikTok was “not going to get banned because I’m going to buy it”.
In other words, he’s waiting to slide into the chiobu‘s DMs.
But here’s where he differs from most others. While most of you would slide into a chiobu‘s DMs merely to shoot your shot with no plan in mind, O’Leary is quite the opposite — he already has a rather detailed plan in mind.
O’Leary shared that if he bought TikTok, he would bring in an American CEO and board, move TikTok’s servers to the US, and rewrite TikTok’s code “to shut out the Chinese back doors”.
That means that even user data stored in TikTok servers located in Singapore could potentially be moved to the US as well.
Perhaps we could negotiate some form of a grant to prevent him from potentially moving the TikTok servers away (just kidding).
As enthusiastic as O’Leary may be to buy TikTok, the truth is this: he has competition.
Another big name, Bobby Kotick — the former CEO of video game company Activision Blizzard — has also expressed his interest in buying TikTok.
Reportedly, Kotick has approached ByteDance’s founder and chairman, Zhang Yiming, regarding the purchase of TikTok — and the price tag on this potential purchase is apparently in the ballpark of hundreds of billions of dollars.
Chinese New Year might be over, but it’s still heng, ong, huat season for ByteDance.
Due to the exorbitant price tag, Kotick has allegedly been looking for partners to potentially buy TikTok together with him, should TikTok eventually be sold.
One such partner that Kotick has apparently pitched the idea of purchasing TikTok to, is OpenAI’s Sam Altman — yes, the OpenAI that’s responsible for helping you write half your emails on ChatGPT.
Who knows? Perhaps TikTok will be the one writing your emails in the future.