TikTok announced Thursday that it had created a joint venture majority-owned by American investors to manage its activities in the United States, ending a long legal saga that threatened to lead to its ban in the country.
This new structure will serve more than 200 million users, while implementing strict guarantees in terms of data protection, algorithm security and content moderation, the platform assured in a press release.
Its creation responds to a law adopted under the mandate of former Democratic President Joe Biden, forcing ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, to cede control of its activities in the United States or risk being banned there.
American President Donald Trump welcomed this epilogue and the role played, according to him, by his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
“I’m so happy to have helped save TikTok!” he wrote on his Truth Social network, saying the network “is now owned by a group of great American patriots and investors.”
“I would also like to thank Chinese President Xi for working with us and ultimately approving the agreement. He could have done the opposite, but he didn’t, and we are grateful to him,” he added.
Donald Trump had repeatedly pushed back the deadline for this compliance of TikTok, which was last set for Friday. The social network announced in December that it had signed an agreement to create the American joint venture required by law.
ByteDance keeps 19.9%
The latter will be held by a majority of American investors. The companies Silver Lake and Oracle will hold 15% of the shares each, as well as the MGX fund, based in Abu Dhabi.
The amount of the transaction was not revealed. Last year, American Vice President JD Vance estimated the valuation of TikTok USA at $14 billion, an amount considered very undervalued by experts.
Among the investors are several wealthy supporters of US President Donald Trump, who defined the contours of the new structure in a decree published in September, like Larry Ellison of Oracle.
This technological giant will be responsible in particular for storing the data of American users in its secure cloud, according to TikTok.
The investment company Silver Lake Partners and the IT group Dell are also among the investors.
ByteDance, for its part, retains a 19.9% stake in the joint venture, thus remaining below the 20% threshold set by law.
According to TikTok, the structure will operate as “an independent entity” led by a board of directors of seven predominantly American members, including the platform’s CEO, Shou Chew, and executives from large investment funds.
On the other hand, TikTok will retain control in the United States of its services responsible for its commercial activities (advertising, online sales, communication, etc.) and the “global interoperability” of the social network.
The law adopted in the spring of 2024 by the US Congress aimed to prevent Chinese authorities from getting their hands on personal data of TikTok users in the United States, or from being able to influence American opinion via the powerful algorithm of the short video social network.
TikTok has admitted that employees based in China had access to American user data, but has always denied having communicated it to the Chinese government.
