ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok, prefers to definitively close its operations in the United States instead of selling them to an American company.
The information was confirmed by several sources to Reuters, and ByteDance also promises to fight in court against the ban using the first amendment of the American Constitution as an argument.
This combative stance by the Chinese has a reason: the algorithm behind the social network. If the company sells its US operations, it will be forced to pass on valuable code to a likely competitor.
Another reason behind ByteDance’s decision is that the US market, despite having 170 million users, is only a small fraction of the global level.
Therefore, a US ban will have a limited impact on ByteDance’s revenues, as most of them come from the Chinese version of the app and other markets, such as Europe and Latin America.
For ByteDance, it is better to lose some revenue than give up its algorithm – some sources said.
When contacted, ByteDance declined to comment on the matter, but the company has already said, on other occasions, that it does not intend to sell TikTok and that it must maintain this position regardless of the circumstances.
