US President Donald Trump expressed happiness for his part in “saving TikTok” on Thursday (January 22), as TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, said it has finalised a deal to establish a majority American-owned joint venture
The venture will secure US data, to avoid a US ban on the short video app used by over 200 million Americans.
Trump, in his Truth Social post, also said that the app was “responsible for my doing so well with the Youth Vote in the 2024 Presidential Election,” and ended the post by thanking Chinese President Xi Jinping for approving the deal.
The deal is a milestone for the social media firm after years of battles that began in August 2020 when Trump unsuccessfully tried to ban the app over national security concerns.
TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC will secure US user data, apps and algorithms through data privacy and cybersecurity measures, ByteDance said.
The agreement provides for American and global investors to hold 80.1% of the venture while ByteDance will own 19.9%.
TikTok USDS JV’s three managing investors – cloud computing giant Oracle, private equity group Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi-based investment firm MGX – will each hold 15%.
A White House official told Reuters that the US and Chinese governments had signed off on the deal. The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not immediately comment.
Details of the deal are in line with those outlined in September, when Trump delayed until January 23 enforcement of a law that would ban the app unless its Chinese owner sold it amid efforts to extract the company’s US assets.
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