Chinese video sharing app, TikTok, is reportedly in talks with micro-blogging site, Twitter, for a merger. According to a report of the Wall Street Journal, Twitter has had preliminary discussions about a possible ‘combination’ with TikTok. People who are familiar with this matter told that a deal which stated that Twitter may not pursue it eventually but may take over TikTok’s operation in the United States is under consideration.
It’s unclear that Twitter would be able to pull up a deal which would involve TikTok’s U.S. operations, the reports on the matter said. Twitter is not the first company to show interest in the wildly popular app TikTok. Earlier, reports of technology giant Microsoft pursuing deal with TikTok to take over not only its U.S. operations, but all of TikTok have also surfaced on the internet. In comparison to Microsoft, Twitter is a much smaller company and it is unlikely that ByteDance which owns TikTok would consider Twitter over Microsoft.
Microsoft has been negotiating deals with TikTok ever since the Trump said that he would ban the app in the United States calling it a threat to national scrutiny. According to reports, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella also spoke with the U.S. president over the matter a week ago.
TikTok acquired massive audience in the past couple of years, as it expanded its operations to all parts of the world with largest markets being China, India and the United States. However, over the past few months, the app has received much flak as it was accused of stealing users’ private data and sending it to the Chinese government. ByteDance had denied the accusations and even agreed on building the data centers in the countries with privacy concerns.
In June, TikTok was among 59 apps which were suspended from operating in India, the largest foreign market for the app. In the latest, the Trump government has issued an executive order which requires TikTok to either sell its US operation to an American firm till September 15, or to lose yet another major market.
