It’s been in the news for a long time, with the popular short-form content social media platform even going dark for users in the United States once. Today, we can put all that behind us, as ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, has agreed to sell its operations to an investment group without any Chinese members.
The US investment group has three managing investors, Silver Lake, Oracle, and MGX, each holding 15 percent. Completing the ground is Dell Family Office, the investment firm of Michael Dell, who is chairman and CEO of Dell Technologies. These investments and safeguards are also extended to the popular Video editor CapCut and the TikTok alternative Lemon8. ByteDance will continue licensing its algorithm to the investment group, as well as pursuing other commercial activities.
The announcement today ends a many-year battle to create a US-controlled version of the social media platform without Chinese influence.
