TikTok Joint Venture Approved to Prevent Ban in United States

After years of debate and regulatory tension, TikTok has secured approval for a joint venture to maintain its operations within the United States. The decision arrives five years after the initial ban threat from former President Donald Trump, who cited privacy and national security concerns related to the Chinese-owned platform. This agreement seeks to address those apprehensions and preserve access for the platform’s more than 130 million US users.

The deal features several prominent parties. Chinese parent company ByteDance agreed to a structure involving Oracle, private equity group Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi’s MGX. The consortium will assume control of critical aspects of the US business, including data protection, algorithm security, content moderation, and software assurance.

Details indicate Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX will each receive a 15 per cent stake; other existing ByteDance investors will hold 30.1 per cent, while ByteDance itself will retain 19.9 per cent, the maximum permitted under US foreign ownership regulations. The remaining 5 per cent will be allocated to new investors yet to be announced. Oversight will be provided by a seven-member board, the majority of whom will be American nationals.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew clarified in an internal memo that ByteDance will continue managing revenue-generating units such as e-commerce, advertising, and marketing, ensuring business continuity. The joint venture will inherit the foundation established by the present US Data Security organisation and will operate as an independent entity for US data governance.

Oracle will take charge of the algorithm that determines user content recommendations, retraining it solely with US-based data to prevent external manipulation. The Chinese authorities, through their cybersecurity regulator, have secured measures to retain licensing and intellectual property rights connected with the underlying algorithm.

The joint venture has been valued at $14 billion and is scheduled to be finalised on 22 January. This arrangement concludes a protracted period of turmoil for TikTok’s American presence, during which time both the Trump and Biden administrations sought to enforce stricter controls over the platform’s governance and data practices. The outcome underlines an ongoing shift in the ownership and regulatory landscape for major digital platforms operating in strategically sensitive markets.