TikTok Founder Zhang Yiming Devising Ways To Counter Threat Of US Ban: Report

TikTok founder is trying to revamp the operations in the US by bringing an American chief executive officer on board while offering assurances that user data will remain protected.

Actor Marie Zaccagnino (L) and musican Sean Sheridan dance and record themselves with a mobile phone for a 'TikTok' video in front of the Brooklyn Bridge. FILE PIC/AFP.

July 24: The man behind the popular Chinese app TikTok is an entrepreneur Zhang Yiming, who conceptualised the popular video-sharing app, and turned it into one of the craziest and popular apps around. But the road for the ambitious entrepreneur looks tough as he is devising ways to ensure that the business sustains under the pressure from the US President Trump. Also Read: No Business As Usual With China Until 'Complete Disengagement' Of Troops Along LAC In Ladakh: Indian Envoy To Russia According to the Bloomberg report, its parent company ByteDance Ltd which is also the investor has asked the founder to offer a solution to address the concerns raised by the US administration including that the app poses a security threat. It is being ideated that a majority stake in TikTok to be sold to American interests. However, the entrepreneur is against such a proposal for his company. But the founder is trying to revamp the operations in the US by bringing an American chief executive officer on board while offering assurances that user data will remain protected. TikTok has also stepped up its efforts to work for the country by creating 10,000 jobs in the country. The US President Donald Trump is aiming to ban the while adviser Peter Navarro stated the app may face consequences in terms of penalties for “information warfare” against the country. In this aspect, a decision is likely to be arrived by November before the election so effectively the founder has little time to salvage the current crises. Trump holds the power to hamper the business. The video sharing app may be asked to be listed in the U.S. entity list, forcing American companies such as Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc.’s Google to unlist the service from their app stores. Moreover, the US’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the US, also popular as CFIUS, is trying to gauge the ByteDance’s 2017 acquisition of the business that became TikTok and could also cause a turnaround of the entity. Both the actions would hamper the business and the video-sharing app prospects.