Shortly after a bill that could potentially ban TikTok in the U.S. took effect, the platform’s Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance, publicly said it had no plans to sell.
The law, which President Biden signed Wednesday, gives ByteDance nine months to sell TikTok to an American buyer, with a possible three-month extension in the event of an imminent sale. If ByteDance does not comply, TikTok could be removed from the app stores by January 19, 2025.
ByteDance made clear on Thursday that it would rather shut down TikTok completely in the US and remove the social media platform from app stores than sell it if legal options to combat the new legislation fail.
“Foreign media reports that ByteDance is exploring the sale of TikTok are untrue,” ByteDance released in a statement to Toutiao, its own news aggregation app. The post refutes a report from The Information that the company was exploring put options, and ByteDance even included screenshots of The Information’s article in its rebuttal.
Shou Zi Chew, CEO of TikTok. Photo credit: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
“ByteDance has no plans to sell TikTok,” the statement continued.
Related: The TikTok ban law has been signed – here’s how long ByteDance has to sell and why TikTok is preparing for a legal battle
Four sources who spoke to Reuters on Friday said TikTok’s algorithms were fundamental to ByteDance’s business and that ByteDance would not sell its “secret source” of algorithms to rivals.
According to the sources, it would be extremely difficult and unlikely for the algorithms to be decrypted from TikTok’s US assets before a possible sale.
ByteDance does not publicly disclose details of its overall financial performance, nor does it disclose how its units like TikTok are doing financially. However, sources close to the company told Reuters that ByteDance’s annual revenue rose from $80 billion in 2022 to $120 billion last year.
Although the US contributed to a quarter of TikTok’s total revenue in 2023, TikTokers in the US only accounted for 5% of ByteDance’s daily active users worldwide, according to the same sources.
These insiders claim that TikTok’s shutdown in the US would have no noticeable impact on ByteDance’s business.
Related: Kevin O’Leary wants to buy TikTok – but says it’s worth a lot less than it was last year
The TikTok ban law was passed due to national security concernswhich TikTok has long denied.
To get around a possible ban, TikTok leaders first turned to the US legal system and described the law as “unconstitutional.”
@Tick Tock
Response to the bill banning TikTok
♬ Original sound – TikTok
“The facts and the Constitution are on our side and we expect to prevail again,” TikTok CEO Shou Chew said in a TikTok on Thursday.
“Our community is also made up of seven million business owners who have built their livelihoods on TikTok,” he added.