Companies Race to Purchase TikTok

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Gabby Jagelaite, Bottom Line Writer

TikTok has quickly become the newest teen craze. With nearly 500 million users worldwide, it has created quite a buzz. While most people have been pleased with the app, there have been others who have found the app untrustworthy. 

TikTok is currently run by ByteDance, a Chinese owned company. The current U.S. President Donald Trump has been known to vocalize his animosity for the app. He wants to ban the app from U.S. residents for the safety of Americans and their data which Trump claims the Chinese company now has. 

When this news first broke, it was speculated the reason he disliked the app was because teens used the platform to teach and encourage others how to misrepresent one of his presidential rallies. The teens and adults involved told people to claim free tickets online even if they had no intention of attending the rally.

Now, there are companies scrambling to purchase the app so it can run in America as well as worldwide. Currently, TikTok is available in at least 40 countries. It is being sold for a current price of 50 billion dollars. Companies that have been known to want to purchase the app include: Microsoft, Walmart, Twitter, Target and Oracle. However, Microsoft is the current leader in these sales and has six weeks to seal the deal with ByteDance. 

Whether TikTok gets sold to Microsoft or not, users are hoping their favorite app does not get banned. Some have even compared this situation to the deletion of the app Vine, another former trendy app.

Therefore, the current outcome of the sale of TikTok will not be confirmed for six weeks until Microsoft buys the app or the deal falls through. Only time will tell if the beloved TikTok will stay.