MrBeast joins the bidding scrum for TikTok — but its algo secret sauce may not be for sale
YouTuber, chocolatier, TikTok owner?… The internet’s highest-earning creator, MrBeast (aka Jimmy Donaldson), has joined a growing list of aspiring TikTok buyers. He and a group of deep-pocketed investors recently made a joint all-cash bid for the app, which has 170M US users. This week, President Trump gave TikTok a 75-day deadline extension to separate from its Chinese parent, ByteDance, or be banned in America. Several wealthy folks have thrown their hats in the ring, but ByteDance has said it has no intention of selling.
Bids: Billionaire Frank McCourt and “Shark Tank” judge Kevin O’Leary offered $20B for TikTok’s US biz (not included: its algorithm). Trump suggested Elon Musk or Oracle’s Larry Ellison as potential buyers.
Halfsies: Trump also pitched the idea of a US company buying half of TikTok and creating a joint venture — adding that tariffs on Chinese goods could hinge on the country approving a TikTok sale.
The sincerest form of flattery… TikTok copycats like Insta Reels and YouTube Shorts have been around for years, but social cos are racing to get even more TikTok-y to benefit from a ban. X and competitor Bluesky both recently announced vertical video tabs. Meta’s rolling out a clone of ByteDance’s CapCut and offering up to $50K/month to TikTok stars to post on Reels. Meantime, 700K “TikTok refugees” joined Chinese video app RedNote.
The secret sauce is everything… TikTok found success (and stayed successful amid copycats) thanks to its top-tier recommendation algorithm, the modern-day Coca-Cola recipe. But according to SCOTUS’s interpretation of the law, a sale wouldn’t be allowed to include that algo, and China likely wouldn’t approve exporting it anyway. It means buyers could end up having to re-create an algo that tech’s biggest players have failed to match.