Deadline approaching: Amazon and OnlyFans founder join the fight for TikTok in the US
Kyiv • UNN
Amazon and OnlyFans founder Tim Stokely have expressed interest in acquiring TikTok as the deadline to find a buyer in the US approaches. This comes amid concerns about the app's ties to China.
As the deadline for finding a buyer for TikTok in the US approaches this weekend, contenders for the short-video social media site are piling up, Reuters reports, writes UNN.
Details
Amazon and, separately, a consortium led by OnlyFans founder Tim Stokely are the latest to enter the ring for TikTok. The site has an April 5 deadline to find a buyer from outside China, under threat of being banned from operating in the US.
US officials have expressed security concerns about the app's ties to China, which TikTok and its owner ByteDance deny. Trump administration officials will meet on Wednesday to discuss various options for TikTok.
Trump to discuss TikTok's fate at Wednesday meeting02.04.25, 01:57 • 12112 views
The startup Zoop, run by Stokely, the founder of the adult social media site OnlyFans, has partnered with a cryptocurrency fund to present a late-stage bidding plan for TikTok, they told Reuters on Wednesday.
A US administration official confirmed that Amazon sent a letter to US Vice President Jay Dee Vance and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick. Amazon shares rose about 2% after news of the last-minute TikTok bid.
Trump said last month that his administration was in contact with four different groups regarding the sale of the platform, without naming them.
Private equity firm Blackstone is discussing joining ByteDance's non-Chinese shareholders, led by Susquehanna International Group and General Atlantic, to inject fresh capital into a bid for TikTok's US business, Reuters reported last week.
US investors in ByteDance explore TikTok deal to appease Trump - FT22.03.25, 09:32 • 27725 views
US venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is also in talks to raise outside funding to buy out TikTok's Chinese investors as part of a bid led by Oracle and other US investors to separate it from ByteDance, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
White House-led talks involve plans to spin off an American company for TikTok and dilute Chinese ownership in the new business to below the 20% required by US law, Reuters reported last month.
The New York Times first reported Amazon's involvement on Wednesday. Various parties involved in the talks do not appear to be taking Amazon's bid seriously, The Times reported.
Addition
The future of the app, used by nearly half of all Americans, has been in question since a law passed in 2024 with overwhelming bipartisan support that required ByteDance to sell TikTok by January 19. Trump then extended the deadline.
Washington officials have said that TikTok's ownership by ByteDance makes it beholden to the Chinese government, and Beijing could use the app to conduct influence operations against the United States and collect data on Americans.