While ByteDance continues to struggle for survival in the United States, a new report has said that – the Chinese firm that owns short video making app TikTok- is in preliminary talks with Reliance Jio to sell its India business to the company.
As per the media reports, people familiar with the matter have said that the “two companies began conversations late last month and have yet to reach a deal.” If successful, the deal might work as a savior for TikTok in its largest foreign market, India, as well as it will provide Mukesh Ambani led RIL an opportunity to connect with its customers.
As of now, any officials statement hasn’t been made by any of the companies.
According to the experts a merger between TikTok and Jio platforms would be a great step for Mukesh Ambani’s dream to revive RIL into a technology-driven company. The deal will also acknowledge India’s fear of the app breaching users’ data and sending it to the Chinese government which led to its ban in the country.
Apart from India, TikTok is facing major operational issues in countries like the United States after President Donald Trump issued an executive order threatening to ban the app unless an American company buys it till September 15. While ByteDance is in talks with the tech giant Microsoft to sell its US operations, Twitter has also shown interest in buying in app.
TikTok was one of the 59 apps which were banned in India as a fallout of geo-political tension with China. India was TikTok’s largest market outside China with more than 200 million users.
Meanwhile, ByteDance has over 2,000 employees in India who are currently dependent on company’s ability to either convince the government to allow them to operate or to sell itself. The company had earlier refused the allegation of breaching users’ private data and even agreed upon establishing data centres in India as a solution to privacy fears.
