Why there is no shame in TikTok selling up in the US

Name: Trump gives Microsoft 45 days to buy TikTok from China’s Bytedance
Uploaded: 2020-08-06T17:30:07.000Z
Duration: 1 min 14 s
Description: Trump gives Microsoft 45 days to buy TikTok from China’s Bytedance

Trump’s suggestion that the US government deserves some of the proceeds from a TikTok sale is outrageous but now would seem like a good time for TikTok to cash in, before it loses out to the next social media fad

Reading Time:3 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

TikTok is not the only Chinese content provider with global ambitions under threat. Photo: Shutterstock

Richard Harris

Published: 1:30am, 7 Aug 2020Updated: 2:45am, 7 Aug 2020

US President Donald Trump is enthusiastic about telling us that he is the “best president” or the “best businessman” ever; “everybody says so”. However, for a Republican businessman president, Trump seems to have quite a lot to learn about capitalism.

It is his job, of course, to point out any security concerns about the operations of foreign-connected technology companies in the US. The battle went into hardware a couple of years ago when Huawei’s deputy chair and chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, was arrested on allegations of fraud. This was unnecessarily escalated into the possibility that Huawei equipment could be a Trojan horse for China to control the machines that increasingly run our lives.

The current row revolves around TikTok, the Chinese video-sharing social networking service owned by Beijing-based ByteDance. It is not my cup of tea, but that view is not shared by the 800 million users around the world who create short dance, lip-synch, comedy and “talent” videos.

It is especially popular with the teen and twenty-something audience. Some users with big followings become “influencers” and make a lot of money talking about what they believe to be their exciting lives and what products pay them most.

It entered the US in 2018, merging with musical.ly to become one of the most downloaded apps in the world, available in at least 150 markets and 75 languages. Such success has also bred reported concerns about its influence over young people, not necessarily political, but also about the social, cultural, moral and safety issues for minors.

01:14

Trump gives Microsoft 45 days to buy TikTok from China’s Bytedance

First of all, Trump said he would not allow TikTok to operate in the US. However, Microsoft came up with the inspirational offer to buy the US operation, especially as Microsoft has relatively little presence in retail social media. Trump said he would ban that move, possibly as it sidelined his ban. Then he said he would allow a TikTok sale but some of the proceeds must go to the government.

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x