The popularity of ByteDance-owned social network TikTok has clearly made the parent company one of the most influential in the Chinese technology sector, and a recent share buyback proposal valued its capitalization at $300 billion, people familiar with the terms of the deal told The Wall Street Journal.
Image source: ByteDance
Meanwhile, in the United States, the social network TikTok is facing difficult times, because the country’s authorities, under pressure from legislative measures, are forcing ByteDance to sell its local assets to certain American owners by mid-January. If the Chinese side refuses to do this, TikTok will be banned in the United States.
ByteDance’s capitalization grew steadily as a result of successive share buyback transactions. In October last year it was estimated at $225 billion, by December of the same year it had grown to $268 billion, and is now capable of crossing the $300 billion mark. Donald Trump, who predictably supported the idea of banning the Chinese social network in the United States, recently reconsidered his point of view, calling such measures a bad idea. Former general counsel of the US National Security Agency, Glenn Gerstell, in an interview with Bloomberg, said that Trump’s victory in the US elections, although it makes lifting the TikTok ban problematic, overall significantly improves the situation for this social network.