(Reuters) – TikTok buzzed with nervous anticipation across the U.S. on Saturday as a looming federal ban threatened to cut off access to the Chinese-owned app that has won over nearly half of all Americans, launched small businesses and shaped online culture.
The company said late Friday that it will go dark in the United States on Sunday unless President Joe Biden’s administration provides assurances to companies such as Apple (NASDAQ: ) and Google that they will not face enforcement action when the ban takes effect.
The ban would be enacted under legislation signed by President Joe Biden in April and would mark the first shutdown of a major social media app in the US — with TikTok boasting about 170 million domestic users and estimated revenue of $20 billion in 2025. year.
The platform has until Sunday to cut ties with its China-based parent company ByteDance or shut down its US operation to address concerns that it poses a threat to national security.
Supreme Court justices upheld the ban in a unanimous decision on Friday, and a statement from the White House suggested Biden would do nothing to save TikTok ahead of schedule.
Without Biden’s decision to formally invoke the 90-day delay, companies that provide services to TikTok or host the app could face legal liability. It is unclear whether TikTok’s business partners, including Apple, Alphabet (NASDAQ: ) Google and Oracle (NYSE: ), will continue to do business with it before Trump is inaugurated on Monday.
Uncertainty over the app’s future has prompted users – mostly made up of younger people – to look for alternatives, including China-based RedNote. Rivals Meta (NASDAQ: ) and Snap also saw their shares rise this month ahead of the ban, as investors bet on an influx of users and advertising dollars.
Marketing companies that rely on TikTok rushed to prepare contingency plans this week in what one executive described as a “hair on fire” after months of conventional wisdom that a solution would materialize to keep the app running.
There have been signs that TikTok could make a comeback under incoming US President Donald Trump, who wants to find a “political solution” to the problem and last month called on the Supreme Court to pause the implementation of the ban.
Trump said on Friday that the decision on the future of the TikTok app would be up to him, but did not provide any details on what steps he would take. Media reports said he was considering an executive order that would suspend enforcement of the law to sell or ban TikTok for 60 to 90 days.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew plans to attend the inauguration of the US president on January 20 and sit among the high-ranking guests invited by Trump, a source told Reuters.
Suitors, including former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, have expressed interest in the fast-growing business, which analysts estimate could be worth as much as $50 billion. Media reports said Beijing was also in talks to sell TikTok’s US operations to billionaire and Trump ally Elon Musk, although the company has denied this.
Privately held ByteDance is about 60% owned by institutional investors such as BlackRock (NYSE: ) and General Atlantic, while its founders and employees own 20% each. It has more than 7,000 employees in the US
