Will TikTok find a US buyer?
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 21 August 2020
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
President Trump has given the Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok a deadline to sell off its US operations, or else he will have it shut down in the country. Microsoft and Oracle have been rumoured to be interested.
Russell Brandom of tech site The Verge tells Ed Butler that the extent of what's on offer is over-hyped. But Jason Davis, associate professor of entrepreneurship at Insead says a US-only version of the app would still have considerable merit. In any case, Sandra Wachter, associate professor at the Oxford Internet Institute, says the threat President Trump thinks TikTok represents won't go away simply by shaving off its US operations.
Producer: Edwin Lane
(Picture Credit: Getty Images.)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello there, I'm Ed Butler. Welcome to Business Daily from the BBC. Today, the company's lining up in the US, hoping to be the one to buy TikTok. |
| 0:11.3 | It's a very exciting new platform that is growing rapidly and it has gained popularity over the last couple of years. |
| 0:19.2 | And it is what could be described as a data gold mine. |
| 0:23.2 | Microsoft, Twitter, Oracle, they've all thrown their hats into the ring, we think. |
| 0:27.5 | I suppose if you're trying to bid up the price, you want to make it seem like lots of people |
| 0:32.6 | are interested. Maybe they're TikTok folks trying to make it seem like, you know, they're |
| 0:36.4 | the popular girl dance. |
| 0:38.3 | This is really not how these deals normally happen. |
| 0:41.5 | The weirdness of the TikTok fire sale. |
| 0:44.6 | That's today's business daily on the BBC. |
| 0:49.1 | There has been an awful lot of talk in the world of tech ever since, the president decided to say this |
| 0:54.7 | about the social media platform TikTok. |
| 0:57.6 | It can't be controlled for security reasons by China. |
| 1:01.5 | Too big, too invasive, and it can't be. |
| 1:06.1 | And here's the deal. |
| 1:08.1 | I don't mind whether it's Microsoft or somebody else, a big company, a secure |
| 1:12.9 | company, very American company by it. Maybe a deal is going to be made. It's a great asset. |
| 1:18.7 | In other words, China owned TikTok no, but American owned great. A quick reminder here, |
| 1:24.7 | President Trump and many others in Washington are hostile to China. |
| 1:28.4 | They're suspicious of its commercial incursions into US business. |
| 1:32.1 | TikTok's parent company is Chinese controlled. |
| 1:34.9 | It's called bite dance. |
... |
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