Feb 3, 2025
TikTok is a huge part of American online culture, with millions of users consuming, posting and sharing content every day. But the app’s future in the U.S. is uncertain. If its parent company, ByteDance, doesn’t agree to a sale, TikTok faces a nationwide ban following the passage of a national security law in April.
President Donald Trump told reporters on Jan. 26 that “numerous people are talking to me” about a potential sale. One interested party that has stepped forward publicly is The People’s Bid for TikTok, a group led by real estate billionaire Frank McCourt and backed by “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary. Their ambitious plan involves purchasing TikTok’s U.S. business while removing its algorithm and replacing it with American-made technology they claim prioritizes privacy and trust.
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“We believe we can preserve — and enhance — the TikTok experience by giving individuals and creators on the platform the value and control they deserve regarding who has access to their data and how it is used,” McCourt said in a news release.
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The group announced Jan. 9 it had made a formal offer to purchase the tech company’s U.S. operations. But there’s one problem: TikTok may not be for sale.
Bye-bye algorithm?
ByteDance has repeatedly stated it has no desire to sell TikTok, however, the company may be willing to compromise. Board member Bill Ford told Bloomberg Television on Jan. 23 that ByteDance is exploring options that would ensure TikTok complies with U.S. legislation, including shifting control, without making a sale.
“We’re quite optimistic we’ll find a solution,” Ford said. “There’s a number of alternatives that we can talk to President Trump and his team about that are short of selling the company that actually would allow the company to continue to operate, maybe with a change of control of some kind, but short of having to sell.”
Meanwhile, O’Leary has been persistent in his campaign to buy the U.S. arm of the platform — even without its prized algorithm in place.
“We’re prepared to put up as much as $20 billion, and we don’t need the algorithm. We don’t want the algorithm,” O’Leary told Yahoo! Finance of The People’s Bid on Jan. 10.
But this strategy isn’t without criticism. Some fear that without TikTok’s powerful algorithm, creators who rely on the app for income might struggle to monetize their content or promote their business if the algorithm changes.
O’Leary doesn’t seem too concerned, posting on X that he plans to “make TikTok wonderful again.”
In addition to ByteDance’s reluctance to make a sale, however, there may be other hurdles.
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The future of TikTok
The U.S. TikTok ban — driven by concerns over the company’s ties to Chinese ownership — was scheduled to take effect Jan. 19. The platform did indeed shut down for American users, but only for about 12 hours. TikTok flickered back to life on screens nationwide and attributed its return to then-President-elect Trump, who earlier in the day promised to delay enforcement of the law banning the app upon his inauguration Jan. 20. Trump signed an executive order to do just that on the day he was sworn into office.
His statement and the events that followed immediately drummed up controversy. It’s unclear, legally speaking, if the now-president had the authority to move the ban’s start date after it took effect. The law threatened severe financial penalties if companies supported the app during the ban. However, it has been reported the Biden administration would leave enforcement of the law up to Trump.
On top of that, Trump also wrote: “I would like the United States to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture. By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to stay up.” The details of such a plot remain unclear.
Some experts believe this entire situation could leave any efforts to make a deal for the platform open to legal challenges, which O’Leary is wary about.
“I would love to do a deal if the law provided for it,” he told CNBC on Jan. 21.
In any case, the long-term fate of TikTok in the U.S. remains uncertain.
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Victoria Vesovski is a Toronto-based staff reporter at Moneywise covering personal finance, lifestyle and trending news. She holds degrees from the University of Toronto and New York University, and her work has appeared on platforms including Yahoo Finance, MSN Money and Apple News.
