After being banned for almost a month, Chinese social media app TikTok returned to the Apple Stores and Google Play in the U.S. on Feb. 14th. During its absence, new rival RedNote gathered over 32.5 million users. It became populated by young influencers as their newest creative platform to express themselves.
RedNote later lost over half of its daily US users when US President Donald Trump negotiated a 75-day pause on January 20th. While it saved 170 million US users from penalties, TikTok has become the face of an economic crisis between the U.S. and China.
US Wants 50% TikTok Ownership
After the pause went into effect, Trump informed TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, that the U.S. should obtain an equity share due to the ban extension. The US President suggested 50% of the app’s ownership. He then warned Chinese President Xi Jinping if China attempted to block any deal with him, it would be considered an act of hostility. According to Forbes, the U.S. government would charge tariffs against them from 25%-100%.
The TikTok Bidding War
On Jan. 22nd, ByteDance’s board director, Bill Ford, told Axios that pursuing the social media platform is in everyone’s interest to have TikTok U.S. owned. His company, General Atlantic, and other major investors that owned 60% of the app saw its business potential grow since 2017.
The Center for Financial Research and Analysis (CFRA) has estimated buyers could spend $40-$50 billion if ByteDance chooses to sell it. White House negotiators revealed that the parent company believes TikTok is at least worth $200 billion. With that expensive of a price tag, President Trump and Vice President JD Vance searched for potential investors to pitch in. Here are the confirmed candidates so far.
Steven Mnuchin (Former US Treasury Secretary)
Back in May 2024, Bloomberg informed that Steven Mnuchin was organizing a group of investors to buy the platform. He has spoken to multiple tech firms and believed that acquiring TikTok could help rebuild its algorithm under U.S. leadership. The Chinese government has been protective of offering an export license to it.
When asked about his bid on Jan. 21st with Squawk on the Street, Mnuchin responded, “We’d be very interested in investing in TikTok. It’s a terrific business, and we’d have a technology plan to rebuild it.”
Jimmy “Mr. Beast” Donaldson (YouTuber)
Earlier, on Jan 13th, Jimmy Donaldson sent a message on X (then Twitter) saying, “Okay fine, I’ll buy TikTok so it doesn’t get banned.” His partner investor, Employer.com CEO Jesse Tinsley later joined him in bidding to save the app. Tinsley posted on Jan. 20th, “This is more than just a platform; it’s about ensuring TikTok remains a safe space where freedom of speech thrives and where creators and communities can connect, inspire, and share ideas safely and respect data privacy.”
During RedNote’s rise in January, it quickly gained criticism for its censorship from the Chinese government. TikTok allows many topics to be taught and entertain viewers in a short video format. Despite it being Chinese-made, the platform’s home country has banned its international version and replaced it with Douyin.
Larry Ellison (Oracle)
On Jan. 21st, Larry Ellison and President Trump discussed purchasing TikTok on a live broadcast. Ellison agreed to partake in the deal. Confirmation of his tech company’s, Oracle, involvement later came on Jan. 25th. The company has been responsible for TikTok’s web infrastructure. Two unnamed officials told NPR, “The goal for Oracle is to monitor and provide oversight of Tiktok’s algorithm, data collection, and software updates.” Yet President Trump does not recall discussing Ellison about TikTok.
Perplexity AI
Fox Business shared their interview with Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas from Feb. 3rd. He spoke about what they it to them and President Trump, “We’re not trying to be disruptive to the existing shareholders, but we’re trying to get what he wants, which is about American control and also the government getting equity of a new entity.”
Perplexity chief business officer Dmitry Shevelenko added, “The main thing we are solving here is clear U.S. board control. We want to make sure there is accountability. American persons, an American company, can fire and hire the CEO of TikTok and have accountability that no data will reach China.”
In addition to Perplexity’s bid, they planned to merge with the app to create a new entity. The search engine AI company sees the value in TikTok’s reliability for information. In a Tech Crunch 2022 report, Google’s Prabhakar Raghavan noticed that 40% of users preferred TikTok or Instagram over Google Search or Maps for discovery purposes.
Potential Buyers on Hold or Rejected
Other investors who initially wanted to assist the President’s TikTok Deal were either prevented by law or pulled their bid. Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary offered to pay $20 billion with Project Liberty. When they learned ByteDance did not include their algorithm in the proposed deal, they postponed their bid. On Jan. 21st, he explained to CNBC that he can’t due to current US laws. “[…] The problem with some of these ideas is they are inconsistent with the ruling of the Supreme Court.”
To keep TikTok online under the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, ByteDance must divest. The parent company is under pressure to separate from the social media platform or risk being banned from the U.S. at the end of the 75-day pause extension. O’Leary and Project Liberty are on standby until they receive confirmation on the finalized deal.
President Trump has openly stated that he would love to see Space X CEO Elon Musk invest in TikTok. When speculation was looming around, Variety posted on their X (then Twitter) page that ByteDance denied trying to sell Musk the app on Jan. 13th. The richest man on Earth later confirmed on Feb. 8th that he does not plan to acquire another social media platform as he had already bought Twitter in 2022. “I don’t know what I would do if I did own TikTok,” he told the press.
China Fights Against Trump’s Tariffs
As the 50/50 TikTok Deal continues, the U.S. and China have begun a new tariff war. President Trump established a 10% tariff increase on Chinese imports on Feb. 4th. He initially wanted to push for a 25% tariff for Mexico and Canada as they are the top two leading import partners of the US. They agreed to pause it for 30 days if they push to stop fentanyl distribution, drug smuggling, and illegal immigration.
However, this broke China’s trust after they were threatened by tariffs since the TikTok Ban extension. President Jinping ordered retaliatory tariffs on Feb. 10th on five U.S. imports:
- Coal (15%)
- Liquefied Natural Gas (15%)
- Crude Oil (10%)
- Agriculture Machinery (10%)
- Large-Engine Cars (10%)
Canada and Mexico felt this betrayal when President Trump gave a 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum suppliers under the following countries listed on WhiteHouse.gov. On Feb. 18th, he signed a reciprocal tariff plan to negotiate fair trade with the impacted countries. Trump will begin this journey with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and is expected to finish on April 1st.
