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Ad tech company AppLovin has confirmed its interest in acquiring popular video sharing app TikTok in all markets outside of China.
A number of potential buyers are battling it out to purchase TikTok in the US, including YouTube influencer MrBeast, Perplexity AI and Oracle Corp, according to reports.
The bidding war comes after owner ByteDance was ordered to divest ownership of the app in the country or face a ban. Following the failure of its appeal to the Supreme Court, it was temporarily taken offline before receiving a 90-day reprieve by new President Donald Trump.
The deadline for any deal is currently set for April 5th, 2025.
All international markets
AppLovin has now confirmed it has provided an “indication of interest” to the US President for all markets outside of China – not just the US.
“This indication of interest is preliminary and there can be no assurance that a transaction involving the Company will proceed,” it said.
The apparent eleventh hour bid comes as Amazon was also reportedly interested in purchasing TikTok.
ByteDance has already been forced to sell off the publishing rights to its games portfolio in the US. Titles such as Marvel Snap and more recently Mobile Legends have been transferred to US outfit Skystone Games, which has picked up publishing rights in the country.
We previously spoke to industry experts about the potential impact a US TikTok ban might have on the mobile games sector. The social platform has become an important channel for user acquisition over the years.
“This won’t be a simple case of moving budget around to other platforms; TikTok is a very specific user base that many treat very differently to other platforms,” said NextBeat head of growth Ryan Davies.
