ByteDance Forms Joint Venture to Manage TikTok in U.S.

New york: ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, has announced a legally binding agreement with three major investors to form a joint venture aimed at operating TikTok in the United States. The primary goal of this venture is to avoid a U.S. ban on the popular short-video app. According to Thai News Agency, TikTok CEO Zhou Shou-zhi informed employees through an internal memo about the agreement with the investors. The new venture will allow TikTok's more than 170 million American users to continue engaging with the app as part of its global community. The agreement outlines that U.S. and global investors will hold a combined stake of 80.1% in the joint venture, while ByteDance will retain a 19.9% minority stake. Zhou stated that the joint venture will function as an independent entity, overseeing user data protection, algorithm security, content moderation, and software security certification in the U.S. Internal memos reveal that ByteDance and TikTok have partnered with Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX from Abu Dhabi to establish the new company, TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC. These companies will collectively control a 45% stake in the venture. The agreement is set to take effect on January 22, potentially concluding years of U.S. government efforts to push ByteDance to sell its American operations due to national security issues.