After Trump disappears, negotiations for the sale of TikTok to the US stop… Instead of selling India

The sale of the U.S. division of the video-sharing app, TikTok, has taken a breather. When former President Donald Trump, who pressured the sale of TikTok, resigned.

On the 15th, Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post (SCMP) quoted a source and reported that TikTok’s parent company, China Byte Dance, had put a hold on its plans to sell TikTok’s US business to Oracle. Sources said, “The deal (between Bite Dance and Oracle) was to meet the Trump administration’s demands.”Said.

According to this, Byte Dance has been negotiating with the view that it will be a valuable investment if former President Trump succeeds in his tenure. That was because Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison was a Trump supporter. However, the source said, “When President Biden was elected, he lost interest (in negotiations for the sale).”

Earlier, on the 10th, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) also announced the suspension of negotiations for the sale of TikTok. WSJ reported that the execution of the executive order to negotiate the sale of TikTok was suspended indefinitely as the Biden administration reviewed the Trump administration’s policy of pressure on China.

Last year, former President Trump demanded that TikTok sell it to a US company, claiming that TikTok leaked US user information and handed it over to the Chinese authorities. Accordingly, in September of last year, Byte Dance decided to establish a joint US corporation’TikTok Global’ with Oracle and Wal-Mart, and was negotiating the sale of shares.

However, due to the decision of the Biden administration, the sale was suspended indefinitely, Instead of establishing a joint venture, a third party is empowering to manage TikTok’s data.Said WSJ. However, the Biden administration added that it is self-identifying the risks related to data collection of Chinese IT companies.

White House spokesman Jen Saki, however, did not deny the suspension of the sale, saying, “The Biden administration is not considering new measures in relation to TikTok and has no plans to review issues related to Chinese IT companies.” A related source also told SCMP that “Bitedance is conceiving new ways to do business in the US and continues to talk with the Biden administration.”

The SCMP cited another source, saying that the Chinese government has also prepared clear guidelines for the TikTok negotiations. The source, a member of the Chinese regulator, introduced two things, saying, “The government has no intention to intervene in details such as the sale price, but there are trading principles.”

First, TikTok’s core software, artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms, could not be exported without permission from the authorities. This policy was added to the government’s list of modifications to restrict export technology in August last year. The second guideline is “Bite dance shouldn’t appear to kneel to the US government,” the source explained, “it could be a bad precedent for Chinese companies.”

Freed from US pressure, Byte Dance is making a move to restore its Indian business. According to foreign media, Byte Dance plans to sell TikTok to its local rival Glance. It is reported that the two sides held private talks with the arrangement of Japan’s Softbank, the shareholder of Byte Dance. This decision is interpreted as a measure following the Indian government banning the use of Chinese apps such as TikTok after a border dispute with China in June of last year. Byte Dance has cited India as its main market, with 200 million TikTok users. However, Byte Dance refuted the idea of ​​the sale of business rights in India as “no work”.

Reporter Lee Min-jung [email protected]