Since its launch 5 years ago, the TikTok app has amassed close to 150 million users in the US alone, providing small businesses with a new way to reach potential customers while raising concerns from national security experts and US lawmakers.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, the app’s future is now at stake, especially as the administration of President Joe Biden is urging its Chinese owners to sell their shares or face a ban.
TikTok officials said the sale would not solve security concerns and instead offered the Biden administration a $1.5 billion plan that they say would isolate its U.S. operations from China.
Negotiations with US regulators on how to secure the app’s data have been ongoing for more than two years now, and the Biden administration could face a long and bumpy road in trying to follow through on its threats while the momentum against the app still builds, but who are the beneficiaries and other losers in the case? if the app is banned in the United States?
beneficiaries of the ban
And we will start with the beneficiaries of the TikTok ban, and at the top of the list are competitors and every company that tried to copy the application or provide a similar service, for example, Instagram through the Rails service.
So are parents, as teens across the country struggle to curb their use of social media.
TikTok is one of the most popular apps for teens and those parents who are worried about their kids using the app will be happy to get banned.
In parallel, legislators from both sides who opposed the implementation in China will benefit.
In addition to the politicians who opposed the app, a group of Silicon Valley executives recently joined the group of people worried about the Chinese parent company.
Losers from prohibition
As for the list of losers from this ban, it is American and Chinese technology companies and telecommunications companies, especially since Beijing and Washington have entered into a technological cold war for at least the past five years.
And a TikTok ban is likely to exacerbate the situation further as some lawmakers fear Beijing will retaliate against a US company doing business in China.
In addition, users, creators and companies will be among the most visible victims of the ban as creators or influencers rely on the app to sell everything from exercise programs to books and vitamins, sometimes raising hundreds of thousands of dollars annually from sponsors.
Banning TikTok would be bad news for investors in its Chinese parent company ByteDance, which is 20% owned by its founders, 20% by employees and 60% by global investors.
Oracle Corporation
While Oracle will be one of the biggest losers, especially since TikTok has hired the company to store its US users’ data as well as monitor its video recommendation algorithm for signs of interference from China.
The US survival app is so dependent on Oracle that it has named its plans to spin off its US operations “Project Texas”, referring to Oracle’s Austin headquarters. And if TikTok is banned, Oracle will lose a major customer.
TikTok CEO Xu ZiQiu reportedly held a session of Congress on Thursday as the Biden administration faces mounting pressure from lawmakers to ban the app in the country on national security grounds.
