We know that the situation for TikTok and its parent company ByteDance is grim right now because the app has already been banned in one of its most populous markets which is India and now there is a looming ban on them in the US as well. It is worth noting that India, and the US, contribute to more than half of the total traffic that comes on the platform which means already they are facing quite a loss of traffic and the US ban will mean almost zero traffic for the platform.
At the moment, there is a lot of confusion regarding the TikTok ban in US because President Trump said that he will ban the app last weekend but later the government revealed that TikTok needs to be sold to any US company for it to not get banned. The reason is that the data of TikTok will remain in the US which will stop the accusations of data being handed over to the Chinese government. Reports also suggest that Microsoft is already talking to TikTok for a deal and it could be announced soon.
But a new bombshell has been dropped by the US President regarding a potential deal which is that if TikTok does not reach a deal before September 15, it will be banned in the country which means this is the last day you will ever get to use ByteDance’s TikTok version. If Microsoft’s TikTok deal does not go through, we will have to say goodbye to the platform in the US too.
However, US President Trump also mentioned that he is fine with Microsoft or another “very American company” getting the deal as long as US Treasury is made sure of “getting a lot of money” and that there should be “an appropriate deal”.