HONG KONG –
TikTok owner ByteDance would rather close its loss-making app than sell it if the Chinese company exhausts all legal options to fight legislation banning the platform from app stores in the United States, four sources said.
The algorithms TikTok relies on for its operations are considered core to ByteDance’s overall business, which would make a sale of the algorithmic app highly unlikely, sources close to the parent company said.
TikTok accounts for a small portion of ByteDance’s total revenue and daily active users, so in a worst-case scenario its parent company would prefer the app to be shut down in the US rather than sell it to a potential US buyer, they said.
