The rumors sprang up late last week and the announcement is now official: Microsoft intends to buy TikTok from ByteDance. With some nuances. The company has released an official announcement explaining some details of what plans they have about this acquisition and how they seek to proceed to make it. An acquisition that is highly dependent on the US government.
As they explain, the CEO of Microsoft has spoken with the President of the US about this purchase due to the different privacy concerns of the government. Accordingly, Microsoft says it agrees to offer a security review of the platform if the purchase is made to clarify concerns that TikTok is collecting information for the Chinese government.
Both ByteDance (current owner of TikTok) and Microsoft have notified the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States of the intention to make the purchase. They have set the deadline for September 15, 2020 and during this time they hope to be able to reach an agreement with the “go-ahead” from the United States Government.
The purchase is not from TikTok in its entirety , but from the service offered in four English-speaking countries. These are the markets of Australia, Canada, the United States and New Zealand. In these four countries, TikTok would operate under the Microsoft umbrella as the top owner, with the possibility of other minor (US) investors participating as well.
If this acquisition were to come true, we would have a curious situation with a total of “three different TikToks” coexisting . We have on the one hand the ByteDance Douyin TikTok that operates in China, on the other the ByteDance TikTok that currently operates outside of China included in Europe and finally we would have the Microsoft TikTok.
In any case, this official announcement does not guarantee that the purchase will be made . Microsoft indicates that it does not intend to provide more information about the process until there is a definitive agreement (either acquisition or non-acquisition).
What would change if the purchase comes true
If Microsoft intends to buy TikTok then it’s not much to the user. “This new structure would build on the experience that TikTok users currently love,” says Microsoft. We would have the change in the security and privacy section. The idea is to store user data from these countries on servers outside of China and without access by ByteDance.
They emphasize from Microsoft that they will ensure that all the data of US users is transferred only to servers in the American country. On the other hand, they also reveal that they will allow “adequate security supervision” by the authorities of the four countries previously mentioned.
This emphasis on user privacy is not in vain, part of the different concerns of the US authorities about how ByteDance manages its users’ data. In fact, President Donald Trump has even raised a ban on using the app in the United States.
The question that now arises about this approach for security and privacy separating users from the aforementioned markets is whether they will be able to interact with other users. In other words, will a TikTok user in Spain be able to watch videos and interact with a user from the United States as they are two different TikTok platforms? Currently, for example, TikTok users in China are completely separated from TikTok users from the rest of the world.