Amazon reportedly bids for TikTok
As the deadline for TikTok to divest its U.S. operations looms, a major suitor has reportedly emerged.
Amazon has placed a bid to purchase the U.S. business of TikTok from its China-based parent company ByteDance, according to Reuters. Although Amazon, TikTok and ByteDance have all declined public comment so far, Reuters said a Trump administration official confirmed that Amazon sent a letter to Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick requesting to make an offer to purchase TikTok’s U.S. operation.
No financial figure has been publicly released. Other interested bidders are said to include Oracle, which has been storing TikTok’s U.S. data on its servers since 2022, as well as an investor group led by the founder of adult entertainment platform OnlyFans, a group of non-Chinese ByteDance shareholders, and venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.
The Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act was passed in April 2024 in response to longstanding concerns over possible ties between TikTok’s China-based parent company ByteDance and the Chinese Communist Party and possible risks to U.S. user privacy (ByteDance and TikTok have publicly denied the validity of these concerns).
[READ MORE: Biden signs potential U.S. TikTok ban into law]
Due to this legislation, which makes it unlawful for U.S. companies to distribute, maintain, or update TikTok unless U. S. operation of the Chinese-owned platform is severed from Chinese control, TikTok briefly went dark in the U.S. during the weekend of Jan. 18-19.
However, President Trump temporarily repealed the ban for a review period which expires Saturday, April 5, 2025. Media reports indicate Trump and the U.S. government have been actively exploring possible business deals that would let TikTok continue operating in the U.S.
Amazon follows up shuttering of ‘Inspire’
Amazon’s reported interest in purchasing the U.S. operation of TikTok comes not long after the company removed a Tik Tok-inspired feature called Inspire it initially added to its shopping app in December 2022.
When customers saw an item in Inspire, they could shop for it in real time on Amazon. In a few clicks, customers could tap on a video or photo to see product details including average star rating and reviews, color and style options, and price, and then add it to their cart.
Inspire was designed to learn more about a customer’s preferences over time through their interests and engagement to continue tailoring their feed of shoppable content. The company also positioned Inspire as a way for brands and influencers to grow their businesses on the Amazon mobile shopping platform.
