San Francisco (AFP)
The fate of TikTok in the United States is becoming clearer, between the resignation of its American general manager and the alliance formed by the giants Microsoft and Walmart to buy the popular but threatened social network from the Chinese group ByteDance.
Candidates for the resumption of the application have been scrambling since President Donald Trump threatened to ban it if it did not quickly pass into the fold of an American company.
Walmart confirmed Thursday that it had allied with Microsoft in its already advanced negotiations to acquire the platform for sharing short videos, usually humorous or musical.
The supermarket giant says it is particularly interested in "TikTok's ability to integrate online commerce and advertising in a way that benefits creators and users in other markets," in a message sent to AFP.
According to the American channel CNBC, TikTok is close to an agreement with a buyer to whom it would sell its operations in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, for a price of between 20 and 30 billion dollars.
Other potential buyers have been cited in the press, including Twitter and the IT group Oracle, which has received support from Donald Trump.
But "Microsoft is the only real white knight," according to analyst Dan Ives of Wedbush, who is planning an operation between 35 and 40 billion.
"The other pillars of tech are in trouble with regulators over the issue of respecting competition. The Redmond group is the only one with the war chest, the infrastructure and the distribution network to find an agreement," a he explained in a note.
- Resignation of the boss -
Donald Trump has accused for months, without proof, the very popular social network of siphoning information on its American users on behalf of Beijing, in a context of heightened tensions with China.
He signed two executive orders aimed at forcing ByteDance to sell TikTok's U.S. operations quickly, and demanded that part of the transaction price go to state coffers, sparking criticism and embarrassment.
The application filed a complaint Monday against the American government, to challenge the decree of August 6, which prohibits any transaction with American partners beyond 45 days, in the name of "national security".
But the resignation Wednesday of Kevin Mayer, former Disney and CEO of TikTok since May, further weakens the network's chances of surviving without an American parent company.
In a letter to employees, he underlines how "the political environment has changed drastically" in recent weeks.
"The mission to which I was hired - in particular to lead TikTok as a whole - will now be very different because of the action of the American administration in pushing to sell the activities in the United States".
Vanessa Pappas, the head of the United States branch, will replace him temporarily.
"We believe that an alliance between Walmart and Microsoft would meet the expectations of US TikTok users and address the concerns of the US government," notes Walmart.
- "Missing piece of the puzzle" -
The social media and e-commerce sectors flourished during the pandemic, thanks to increased demand for products to be consumed at home, from entertainment to gardening tools and kitchen utensils.
In the second quarter, Walmart's online sales almost doubled in the United States compared to the same period in 2019.
The group employs more than 2.2 million people in 27 countries, and has, since the start of the year, hired more than 500,000 additional employees worldwide, mainly temporarily, to cope with the peak of activity.
It also plans to launch a subscription program to its e-commerce site, Walmart +, which would compete with Prime, that of Amazon.
"We believe that a potential relationship with TikTok USA, in partnership with Microsoft, (...) could provide us with a way to reach and serve customers on all possible channels, and to advance our market activities of market and in advertising, "Walmart said.
Since its international launch in 2017, TikTok has been downloaded 175 million times in the United States and over 1 billion worldwide.
Walmart entering the scene, "is the missing piece of the puzzle that cements Microsoft's chances of buying out TikTok's US operations," says Dan Ives.
“It would be Christmas early for investors,” he adds. If Microsoft "manages its business well", TikTok "could be worth in the 200 billion dollars within a few years".
© 2020 AFP