The algorithms that Tik Tok relies on in its operations are fundamental to Byte Dance’s overall operations, which makes selling the app including the algorithms highly unlikely.
You would prefer a company. ”Byte Dance”, owner of the application “Tik Tok“, closing its app rather than selling it if the Chinese company exhausts all legal options to challenge legislation aimed at banning the platform from app stores in the United States, as reported. Reuters “From four sources.
Sources close to the parent company indicated that the algorithms that Tik Tok relies on in its operations are fundamental to Byte Dance’s overall operations, which makes selling the application, including the algorithms, highly unlikely.
It stated that “Tik Tok” represents a small share of Byte Dance’s total revenues and daily active users, so the company prefers to close the application in the United States in the worst-case scenario rather than sell it to any American buyer.
The sources, who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media, explained that the closure will have a limited impact on Byte Dance’s business while the company will not be forced to abandon its core algorithms.
The company declined to comment. It said late Thursday in a statement posted on its Toutiao media platform that it had no plan to sell Tik Tok in response to a report by the “TikTok” website. The Information It was stated that Byte Dance is exploring scenarios for selling TikTok works in the United States without the algorithms that recommend videos to users.
In response to a request from Reuters for comment, a TikTok spokesperson referred to Byte Dance’s statement published on Toutiao.
TikTok CEO Xu Ziqiu said on Wednesday that the company expects to win a legal battle to stop implementing the law signed by President Joe Biden, which he said would ban the app used by 170 million Americans.
The law sets a deadline of January 19, 2025, for the sale of the application’s assets, that is, one day before the end of Biden’s term, but he can extend the deadline by three months if he believes that Byte Dance is making progress.
Byte Dance does not disclose its financial performance or the financial details of any of its units. Other sources said that the company continues to make most of its money in China from other applications.
A separate source familiar with the matter said that the United States represented about 25 percent of TikTok’s total revenues last year.
Reuters interviewed more than six investment bankers who said that it is difficult to evaluate the value of “Tik Tok” compared to other competitors such as Facebook and Snap, given that the application’s financial data is not widely available and not easily accessible.
Two of the four sources reported that Byte Dance’s revenues for 2023 rose to approximately $120 billion from $80 billion in 2022. One of the sources said that daily active TikTok users in the United States constitute only about five percent of users. “Byte Dance” applications around the world.
