Since its launch 5 years ago, TikTok has amassed about 150 million users in the United States alone, giving small businesses a new way to reach potential customers, while causing concern among national security experts and lawmakers in the United States.
The future of the application is now at stake in the United States, especially as President Joe Biden’s administration is calling on its Chinese owners to sell their shares or face the ban, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.
TikTok officials revealed that the sale would not solve security concerns, and instead proposed to the Biden administration a $1.5 billion plan that it says would isolate its US operations from China.
Negotiations with US regulators on a way to secure the application data have continued for more than two years, and the Biden administration may face a long and bumpy road in an attempt to implement its threats, while the momentum against the application is still increasing, but who are the beneficiaries and the other losers in the event that the application is banned in the United States?
beneficiaries of the ban
And we start with the beneficiaries of banning TikTok, and at the top of the list are competitors and every company that tried to copy the application or provide a similar service, such as Instagram through the “Rails” service.
So are parents, as teens across the country struggle to rein in their use of social media.
TikTok is among the most popular apps for teens, and those parents who are worried about their kids using the app will rejoice at the ban.
Show Chew Tik Tok
In parallel, lawmakers from both parties who have argued against the Chinese implementation will benefit.
In addition to the politicians who were against the app, a group of Silicon Valley executives recently joined the group of people worried about the Chinese parent company.
The losers of the ban
As for the list of losers from this ban, they are US and Chinese technology companies and telecommunications companies, especially since Beijing and Washington have entered into a technological cold war during the past five years at least.
And banning TikTok will likely escalate matters further, as some lawmakers worry that Beijing will retaliate against an American company doing business in China.
In addition, users, creators, and companies will be among the most prominent victims of the ban, as creators or influencers rely on the app to sell everything from exercise programs to books and vitamins, sometimes collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars annually from sponsors.
Tik Tok (AFP)
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 the data of its American users, as well as to monitor its video recommendation algorithm for signs of interference from China.
The app for survival in the US relies so much on Oracle that it has dubbed its plans to spin off its US operations “Project Texas,” a reference to Oracle’s Austin headquarters. And if TikTok is banned, Oracle will lose a major customer.
It is reported that TikTok CEO Xu Zi Qiu underwent a congressional grilling session on Thursday, as the Biden administration faces increasing pressure from lawmakers to ban the app in the country on national security grounds.
