Chinese short video social networking platform TikTok won’t be sold to Microsoft after all, this comes days after the much-anticipated sale to the American software giant in a bid to comply with US governments requirement. The social network had opted to relinquish its North American operations in a move that was expected to appease Donald Trump who had shown all indications to ban it’s US operations.
The US government had initially indicated it would ban the app in the country, claiming to have links with the Chinese government thereby posing a major risk to citizens. US has been particularly keen to halt operations of companies it deemed to have deep relations with the Chinese government, with the exe falling on Huawei who have had to resort to other measures in a bid to secure its continuity.
During Huawei’s developer conference, the company indicated it was forging collaborations with various entities across the world to create its own AppGallery that would rival Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store. A couple of apps including Kenyan local apps such as Tuko, KPLC and NTSA have already onboarded the AppGallery and Huawei is looking on more apps to join globally.
Close to a dozen US companies had shown interest in acquiring TikTok’s operations in the country including popular social networking platform – Twitter. It was however not likely that Twitter would win the contest given some major heavyweights like Microsoft with vast financial resources were amongst contestants.
Microsoft in a statement indicated they’d received a communication from TikTok about their reversal decision and later Oracle was announced as the preferred partner in the United States. It’s however not clear what the said partnership entails and whether Donald Trump would be contented with the outcome.