(Reuters) – TikTok vibrated with nervous anticipation across the United States on Saturday as a looming federal ban threatened to cut off access to the Chinese-owned app that has captivated nearly half of all Americans, boosted small businesses and has shaped online culture.
The company said late Friday that it will go dark in the United States on Sunday unless President Joe Biden’s administration provides assurances to companies like Apple (NASDAQ 🙂 and Google that they will not face enforcement action when the ban goes into effect.
The ban would be enacted under a law signed by President Joe Biden in April and would mark the first U.S. shutdown of a major social media app: TikTok has about 170 million domestic users and estimated revenue of $20 billion. of dollars in 2025.
The platform has until Sunday to cut ties with its China-based parent ByteDance or close its US operations to resolve concerns that it poses a national security threat.
Supreme Court justices upheld the ban on Friday in a unanimous decision, and a White House statement suggested Biden would not take any action to save TikTok before the deadline.
Without a decision by Biden to formally invoke a 90-day delay in the deadline, companies that provide services to TikTok or host the app could face legal liability. It is unclear whether TikTok’s business partners, including Apple, Alphabet’s Google (NASDAQ 🙂) and Oracle (NYSE 🙂), will continue doing business with TikTok before Trump is inaugurated on Monday.
Uncertainty about the app’s future had caused mostly young users to look for alternatives, including China-based RedNote. Rivals Meta (NASDAQ 🙂 and Snap also saw their shares rise this month ahead of the ban, as investors bet on an influx of users and advertising dollars.
Marketing companies that rely on TikTok scrambled to prepare contingency plans this week in what one executive described as a “hair on fire” moment after months of conventional wisdom saying a solution to keep the app going would materialize. in operation.
There have been signs that TikTok could return under incoming US President Donald Trump, who wants to seek a “political resolution” to the issue and last month urged the Supreme Court to halt implementation of the ban.
Trump said Friday that the decision on the future of the TikTok app will be up to him, but did not provide any details about the steps he would take. Media reports have said he was considering an executive order that would suspend enforcement of the TikTok sale or ban law for 60 to 90 days.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew plans to attend the US presidential inauguration on January 20 and sit among high-profile guests invited by Trump, a source told Reuters.
Suitors, including former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, have expressed interest in the fast-growing business that analysts estimate could be worth up to $50 billion. Media reports say Beijing has also held talks about selling TikTok’s US operations to billionaire and Trump ally Elon Musk, although the company has denied this.
Privately held ByteDance is about 60% owned by institutional investors such as BlackRock (NYSE 🙂 and General Atlantic, while its founders and employees own 20% each. It has more than 7,000 employees in the US.