Facebook and Snapchat, the company that owns the Snapchat app, have reportedly been in talks to buy a TikTok competitor called Dubsmash.

This interest highlights the short video applications at a time when Microsoft is trying to strike a deal to buy TikTok.

DebsMash, which has been in existence since 2013, has grown in popularity with a host of other Tik Tok competitors.

Facebook and Snap have reached out to rival TikTok about a potential sale in recent weeks, and the source said the takeover talks had advanced enough to include discussions of a price in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

The interest in DebsMash illustrates how big tech companies are rushing to take advantage of the growing consumer interest in short videos, a category demonstrated by the explosive growth of TikTok.

With the US government threatening to ban TikTok due to its Chinese ownership, the uncertainty about the future of the Chinese app has increased the appeal of competing apps, such as Triller, Byte, and Debsmash.

Big tech companies are seeking to take advantage of the growing consumer interest in short videos (social media)

Debsmash and other video-sharing platforms have recently seen an increase in the number of downloads and user numbers, as 100 million Tik Tok users in the United States prepare for a future without the app each month.

TikTok is currently facing an executive order from US President Donald Trump that prohibits any transactions or business deals as of mid-September with the app and its parent company, ByteDance.

Although a nationwide ban is unlikely to be enforced, the threat to TikTok was enough to make users panic about where the videos were made and find their favorite creators.