Less than a month after extending a deadline to ban TikTok for the third time, President Donald Trump told reporters late Friday night that, 鈥淲e pretty much have a deal,鈥 on TikTok 鈥 but he did not offer details.
The details and timing of a potential deal are not clear. TikTok did not immediately respond to messages for comment on Monday.
Emarketer analyst Jeremy Goldman said while TikTok is 鈥渞eportedly planning鈥 a U.S. version of its app to comply with legal restrictions, the platform 鈥 if it launches without the original TikTok algorithm 鈥 鈥渞isks losing the very personalization that drives user engagement.鈥
In other words, TikTok just isn't TikTok without its algorithm.
鈥淎nd getting millions to download a new app is no small feat, to say the least,鈥 Goldman added.
Here's what to know about where TikTok stands in the U.S. following Trump's comments.
Extensions continue
Though he has no clear legal basis to do so, Trump has continued to extend the deadline for TikTok to avoid a ban in the U.S. This gives his administration more time to broker a deal to bring the social media platform under American ownership.
It is not clear how many times Trump can 鈥 or will 鈥 keep extending the ban as the government continues to try to negotiate a deal for TikTok, which is owned by China鈥檚 ByteDance. While there is no clear legal basis for the extensions, so far there have been against the administration. Trump has amassed more than 15 million followers on TikTok since , and he has credited the trendsetting platform with helping him gain traction among young voters. He said in January that he has a 鈥渨arm spot for TikTok.鈥
TikTok stays for now
For now, TikTok continues to function for its 170 million users in the U.S. Tech giants Apple, Google and Oracle were persuaded to continue to offer and support the app, on the promise that Trump鈥檚 Justice Department would not use the law to seek potentially steep fines against them.
Americans are even more closely divided on what to do about TikTok than they were two years ago.
A recent found that about one-third of Americans said they supported a TikTok ban, down from 50% in March 2023. Roughly one-third said they would oppose a ban, and a similar percentage said they weren鈥檛 sure.
Among those who said they supported banning the social media platform, about 8 in 10 cited concerns over users鈥 data security being at risk as a major factor in their decision, according to the report.
Trump said Friday that on Monday or Tuesday, the U.S. would take the proposal to Chinese leader Xi Jinping or one of his representatives. The president said he thinks they 鈥減robably鈥 need China to approve the deal but he wasn鈥檛 sure they needed to.
When asked whether he was confident China would approve the deal, Trump said, 鈥淚鈥檓 not confident but I think so.鈥
He said that for the U.S., 鈥渨e make a lot of money if the deal goes through."
Who wants to buy TikTok?
Although it鈥檚 unclear if ByteDance plans to sell TikTok, several potential bidders have come forward in the past few months.
Aides for Vice President JD Vance, who was tapped to oversee a potential deal, have reached out to some parties, such as the artificial intelligence startup Perplexity AI, to get additional details about their bids, according to a person familiar with the matter. In January, Perplexity AI presented ByteDance that would combine Perplexity鈥檚 business with TikTok鈥檚 U.S. operation.
Perplexity had no comment on Monday.
Other potential bidders include a consortium organized by billionaire business executive Frank McCourt, which recently recruited Reddit co-founder adviser. Investors in the consortium say they鈥檝e offered ByteDance $20 billion in cash for TikTok鈥檚 U.S. platform. And if successful, they plan to redesign the popular app with blockchain technology they say will provide users with more control over their online data.
Among the possible investors are the software company Oracle and the investment firm Blackstone. Neither company immediately responded to messages seeking comment on Monday.
