Facebook at risk from TikTok's unlikely saviour
Microsoft, seen as a boring player among the tech giants, is set to shake up social media and give serious competition to Facebook if it acquires TikTok.
'Holy s---, Microsoft just saved TikTok!" That's how one TikTok creator, speaking under a banner reading "Thanks Daddy Microsoft", greeted the news that the Chinese viral video app might escape a ban from the US.
It was the culmination of three days of peril for TikTok and its Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance. Having already been banned in India, TikTok executives were "desperate" to shield their creation from the wrath of the White House by selling it to an American company. Negotiations with Microsoft were close to completion when president Donald Trump publicly declared his opposition.
The Telegraph London
Subscribe to gift this article
Gift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.
Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber?
Introducing your Newsfeed
Follow the topics, people and companies that matter to you.
Find out moreRead More
Latest In Telecommunications
Fetching latest articles