TikTok: Who are the potential buyers?

5 April 2025 deadline is looming for TikTok sale
Trump has “a lot of potential buyers”
Amazon has submitted a last-minute bid for the app

Amazon is now reportedly in the running to buy TikTok Credit: Imago

Tomorrow, Saturday 5 April 2025 is the looming deadline for TikTok to find a US buyer or face a ban, after President Donald Trump extended the original January deadline.

As reported by USA Today Trump has “a lot of potential buyers” and seems confident a deal would come to fruition in time.

The short-video social media app is currently owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It boasts a staggering 170 million users.

US officials fear the app poses a national security risk. The concerns are over the People’s Republic of China potentially accessing data on US users and influencing operations.

Trump administration officials met on Wednesday to discuss the bidders. Vice President JD Vance addressed the situation in an interview with Fox News on Thursday, stating, “It’ll come out before the deadline. I think that we’re in a good place. We’re going to keep on working at it.”

So, who are the groups or people behind the bids?

Amazon

Amazon has submitted a last-minute bid to buy the app. It was sent in a letter to Vance and Department of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Wednesday, a US official confirmed.

The retail giant has previously bought out companies. It purchased live streaming platform Twitch for nearly $1 billion in 2014, after buying book review website Goodreads in 2013.

Shares of Amazon jumped by about 2 percent after news of its bid broke.

Zoop & Hbar Foundation

Zoop, co-founded by Tim Stokely – who also founded OnlyFans, a social media site known for its adult content – has partnered with the cryptocurrency Hbar Foundation in a bid.

Stokely’s Zoop startup is a mainstream creator’s site aimed at rewarding community members for engagement. The Hbar Foundation is a group that supports the use and growth of the Hedera network, which is a type of digital system that allows secure and fast transactions.

“Our bid for TikTok isn’t just about changing ownership, it’s about creating a new paradigm where both creators and their communities benefit directly from the value they generate,” Zoop co-founder RJ Phillips said in a statement.

AppLovin

Marketing platform AppLovin said on Thursday it had submitted a bid for TikTok assets.

The company provides mobile app developers with tools to grow their businesses. It helps them make money from their apps, find new users, and track how their apps are performing.

It was previously backed by KKR and started as a mobile gaming company. It shifted to serving pop-up ads after announcing in February plans to sell its gaming division for $900 million to a private buyer.

Perplexity

U.S.-based AI search engine Perplexity proposed a merger in January. It proposed to merge Perplexity, TikTok US, and other equity investors to create a new entity.

Since then, a revised proposal has been submitted, which would give the US government up to 50 percent ownership. The government would receive its share after a public offering of at least $300 billion has been made.

“Perplexity is singularly positioned to rebuild the TikTok algorithm without creating a monopoly, combining world-class technical capabilities with Little Tech independence,” the company wrote.

Blackstone

Private equity firm Blackstone is considering a small minority stake, according to Reuters.

Blackstone would join an existing group of non-Chinese shareholders led by Susquehanna International Group and General Atlantic. These investors are already part of the group backing TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance.

Their plan is to separate TikTok’s U.S. operations into its own company and reduce Chinese ownership in it to less than 20%, as required by U.S. law.