TikTok Deal Moves Forward: New Algorithm or Brand-New App in the US?
An agreement to keep Tiktok active in the United States after the current deadline of December 16 should occur soon. The Wall Street Journal reports that a decree could approve an agreement involving American companies and China this week.
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What will change for Tiktok? Who will control the platform? Will the American version of the popular video application be a restart with a whole new application or a version of the current version that some 170 million Americans already use?
Although there are surprisingly few answers to several of these questions, there seems to be progress. On September 19, US President Donald Trump spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping. He later said that an agreement for American companies to use the US platform operations had the blessing of China. Bytedance, based in China, has Tiktok.
But the experience for people who use Tiktok during this transition is much less clear.
What could change?
Previous reports had suggested that an American version of Tiktok would force all national users to migrate to a whole new application, and that the new application may not have access to the same content as other countries.
This may no longer be the case. According to the Wall Street Journal, Tiktok users may not be required to migrate after all, and the parties involved can transition via an application update.
However, the algorithm that Tiktok uses in the United States is likely to change. Bloomberg reports that a new algorithm could be used according to the original version of Bytedance, but restarted and trained on new data. It is not yet clear if existing user data would be merged with data from the new version of algorithm or if this is even possible.
Who will lead Tiktok in the United States?
The American version of Tiktok would be controlled and managed by a consortium made up of several companies based in the United States, including Oracle, which would process data storage and cloud services and also act as a Tiktok security supplier.
According to the Wall Street Journal and a distinct report from Reuters, existing investors in Tiktok, like Susquehanna International, would control 30% of the American consortium Tiktok, and new investors, such as the Silver Lake investment company, would join this share to compensate for a total of 80% of ownership.
Bytedance would not abandon total control. He would hold one of the seven seats of the Board of Directors for US Operations in Tiktok, according to these reports. If this is true, that would leave the door open to the continuous involvement of China, which was one of the dangers that the Trump administration and the previous administration of Biden quoted as a reason to close Tiktok in the first place.
However, these details on the property and control could still change. Chinese officials have not confirmed that an agreement on Tiktok has been finalized.
How long will it happen?
At one point, it seemed that an agreement could be finalized by the telephone call on September 19 between China and the United States. But instead, the Trump administration postponed a deadline for December for Tiktok to change the property or close. However, if a decree occurs earlier, it could accelerate things towards faster resolution.
