TikTok is not considering selling its US business and would rather shut down in US

TikTok owner ByteDance is not considering selling the US part of its business and will shut down the app in the US if it exhausts all legal means to fight a law banning TikTok from app stores, four sources told Reuters.

One of the problems with the alternative solution to selling TikTok is the app's video recommendation algorithm, which is also used in the company's other products and is owned by parent company ByteDance. TikTok only accounts for a small portion of the Chinese company's total revenue and total weekly visitors, and it would be more profitable for the company to shut down the app in the US than sell it to an American buyer. On its Toutiao media platform, ByteDance denied the rumors about the possible sale of TikTok without these algorithms.

According to ByteDance sources, TikTok accounted for only 25% of the company's total revenue last year, with the bulk coming from other apps, including Douyin, the social media equivalent of TikTok in the Chinese market. TikTok's share of daily visitors in the US is only 5% of the total visitors of all ByteDance apps. Shutting down TikTok in the US will hardly affect the company's business, and it won't have to give away its core algorithm to another company.

Recall that earlier the US president signed a law that obliges ByteDance to sell TikTok no later than January 19, 2025. However, the CEO of ByteDance, Shou Zi Qiu, expects that they will be able to get the decision to block their social network to be canceled through the court.

The reason for the problems with TikTok in the US is that American officials have repeatedly expressed concern that TikTok is passing on the data of American users to the Chinese government, which can use it for its own political purposes.