TikTok owner ByteDance would rather close its loss-making app than sell it if the Chinese company exhausts all legal options in fighting legislation to remove the site from app stores in the United States, four sources told Reuters.
TikTok’s algorithms are considered crucial to ByteDance’s entire operations, making selling the app with algorithms complicated, according to people close to the business.
According to the sources, a shutdown would have little impact on ByteDance’s revenue and would not require the company to give up its fundamental algorithm.
Biden’s signing establishes a Jan. 19 deadline for a sale, one day before his tenure expires, but the report noted that he might extend it by three months if he believes privately owned ByteDance is making progress.
Ariel Ben Solomon is the Growth and Strategy manager at Ecomhunt. He is the host of the Ecomhunt Podcast. Can be followed on Twitter at @ArielBenSolomon
