TikTok has been facing an immense amount of pressure to sell its US assets, and it finally chose a buyer. Oracle will now partner with the short-form video app.
US President Donald Trump threatened to ban TikTok on September 15th, 2020 if it wasn’t sold to a US-based technology company. President Trump was concerned that the China-owned app posed a national security threat.
Trump’s tight deadline left TikTok scrambling to find a buyer. After some deliberation, Oracle managed to knock the Microsoft-Walmart team out of the race, and subsequently became the winner of the intense bid-off.
But despite Oracle reaching an agreement with TikTok, the deal isn’t much of a sale. Oracle released a statement to PR Newswire, and said it would be serving as TikTok’s “trusted technology partner.”
This means that Oracle probably won’t be taking over TikTok. The app will still retain its addicting recommendation algorithm that TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, refuses to give up. As it stands, it seems that Oracle will simply act as TikTok’s security partner.
A TikTok spokesperson commented on the Oracle partnership to CNBC, saying:
We can confirm that we’ve submitted a proposal to the Treasury Department which we believe would resolve the Administration’s security concerns. This proposal would enable us to continue supporting our community of 100 million people in the US who love TikTok for connection and entertainment, as well as the hundreds of thousands of small business owners and creators who rely upon TikTok to grow their livelihoods and build meaningful careers.
At this time of writing, the partnership still needs to be approved by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.
TikTok has found a way around a full-blown sale, and is instead opting for a partnership. By teaming up with Oracle, TikTok can use the tech company as a buffer. This means that TikTok probably won’t face as much backlash from the US government, and it may be able to leave its alleged data-stealing reputation in the past.