Multi-millionaire entrepreneur and Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary says he can prevent social media giant TikTok from disappearing into the dark on Sunday.
Now, in an exclusive interview with Daily Mail, hours after the U.S. Supreme Court decided to uphold President Joe Biden’s ban on TikTok, O’Leary has a message for the app’s Chinese owners: Let’s make a deal.
On Friday afternoon, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal from TikTok owner ByteDance, meaning the app may be forced to suspend service to its 170 million US users on Sunday unless ByteDance agrees to sell to a US entity.
Biden’s ban, signed in April, followed warnings from the US national security apparatus that the app posed a “serious” national threat due to its owner’s ties to China’s authoritarian communist government.
Even O’Leary is concerned about TikTok’s security, so he downloaded the app to a device that doesn’t contain any of his private data.
“I have 1.4 million followers on TikTok, but on a burner phone with false information in it… I know (the Chinese government) is looking at it. It is not speculative,” he said.
Currently, O’Leary’s syndicate, formed in partnership with billionaire businessman Frank McCourt, has made the only known offer to buy the service. And they offer to buy the app even without the core algorithm that personalizes each TikTok account for the user.
If ByteDance’s owners are willing to sign a letter of intent (LOI) indicating their willingness to agree to a sale, the app is legally allowed to remain online in the US for another 90 days. O’Leary says this will give ByteDance a timeframe to allow them to work out the details of the deal.
Multi-millionaire entrepreneur and Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary says he can prevent social media giant TikTok from disappearing into the dark on Sunday.
The Supreme Court rejected an appeal from TikTok owner ByteDance, meaning the app may be forced to suspend service to its 170 million US users. (TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is pictured).
“TikTok could continue to operate for another three months, which is a very attractive option,” he said. However, if ByteDance refuses to sign an LOI, O’Leary says the app will likely have to be shut down on Sunday.
“That’s going to create quite a bit of confusion in the marketplace in terms of ad revenue, users and everything else,” O’Leary said.
“That’s a heart attack,” he said.
For him, buying the app is too good an opportunity to miss: ‘I have never seen a more complex situation in my life, a more interesting situation. I’ve never had a greater opportunity.’ And he has bold plans to ‘fix’ it too.
“We need to create a platform where people feel 100 percent comfortable letting their kids use it, 100 percent comfortable that their data isn’t being mined by anyone, or that an adversary isn’t seeing any information about them,” said he.
To do that, O’Leary wants to give users ownership of their personal data and even offer them the opportunity to receive a share of the revenue their data generates from selling it to advertisers.
‘I have never seen a more complex situation in my life, a more interesting situation. I’ve never had a greater opportunity,” O’Leary said.
“We’d like to let you decide which content areas you want to advertise in and then share in the revenue so you’re a true partner. You own part of the company,” he said.
As for President-elect Donald Trump’s involvement, he has publicly spoken out in favor of selling TikTok because he wants to keep the app online, but Trump has not specifically given O’Leary his support.
“He encouraged us to keep going,” O’Leary said, “I basically asked him point-blank, “Do you want to shut down TikTok or not?” And he said, ‘No, I think it has merit. I like competition in the market.”’
So as the hours count down until the ban comes into effect, O’Leary tells the Mail he has a message for ByteDance.
“I want to continue it,” he said. “I want it to stay lit, and I’m willing to work with anyone within the TikTok organization or shareholders toward that goal.”