TikTok Parent Company ByteDance In Early Talks With Reliance Industries For Investment: Report

The two companies Reliance and ByteDance began conversations in July and have not reached a deal yet.

An Indian mobile user browses through the Chinese owned video-sharing 'Tik Tok' app on a smartphone in Bangalore on June 30, 2020. - TikTok on June 30 denied sharing information on Indian users with the Chinese government, after New Delhi banned the wildly popular app citing national security and privacy concerns. "TikTok continues to comply with all data privacy and security requirements under Indian law and have not shared any information of our users in India with any foreign government, including the Chinese Government," said the company, which is owned by China's ByteDance. (Photo by Manjunath Kiran / AFP)

New Delhi: Even as the government has taken a strong stand against the Chinese video-based app TikTok by banning citing security reasons, there is a news that its owner ByteDance is in early talks with Reliance Industries for an investment. The two companies began conversations in July and have not reached a deal yet, according to the technology website TechCrunch report which cited its sources. Also read: Google To Use Android Devices As Earthquake Detectors To Send Quick Alerts; Know How It Will Work None of the companies including Reliance, ByteDance, and TikTok responded to the requests for comment. The government in June banned 59 Chinese apps, including TikTok and WeChat, for threatening its "sovereignty and integrity" after border tensions with China. The app ban has jolted the ambitions of ByteDance in India, where its TikTok video app was hugely popular. The government directed all these apps to ensure strict compliance with its orders and warned of serious action in case of any violation. The Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) has written a strongly worded letter to the 59 banned Chinese apps (that includes TikTok) that they must ensure strict compliance of the government order regarding the ban on them. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has banned transactions with China’s ByteDance, owner of video-sharing app TikTok, and Tencent, operator of the WeChat app starting in 45 days. The orders have been issued by the Trump administration in an attempt to rein in control over Chinese apps from accessing US digital networks while calling the short video app TikTok and messenger WeChat as “significant threats”. Last week, US President Donald Trump unveiled bans on US transactions with the China-based owners of messaging app WeChat and TikTok, escalating tensions between the two countries. In fact, Microsoft has been in talks to acquire the US operations of the video-sharing app, according to reports.