It must be quite a gruelling few months for ByteDance who has been given a 45 days ultimatum to sell arguably the world’s most favourite app – Tiktok.
Since the President of United States announcement, several top US technology companies, such as Microsoft, Oracle, Twitter and even Walmart, who is teaming up with Microsoft, have all been jostling to buy the app’s operations in the state, some have even loftier goals.
It doesn’t end there, Facebook founder, Zuckerberg took the opportunity to launch a similar-featured app, Reels, right in the midst of the controversy. A move that jostled him to become the youngest centi-billionaire globally.
ByteDance decided to sue the US Government last week Monday on grounds of depriving it of its due process by enforcing an emergency executive order to block all the app’s operation within the United States.
President Trump had used his economic power to ban all transactions with both WeChat and TikTok because of their Chinese affiliations and further gave a 90 days ultimatum for the owners of TikTok, ByteDance to divest all its assets in America.
This development stems from an on-going stalemate between the U.S and China which also affected Huawei and now many more businesses with Chinese origins. The journey takes an interesting turn as ByteDance may require the approval of the Chinese government to sell its Intellectual property because of the newly enforced restrictions on exports of AI technologies. A move that was updated on Friday.
The move could make TikTok’s sale even more complicated than it already is considering the Chinese government had vowed to retaliate to the United States plan, calling it theft. TikTok has, however, disclosed plans to abide by the regulations.
It sure looks like a bumby road ahead for TikTok.