TikTok’s India business could fetch a valuation of around $2.5 to $5 billion, around 10% of its $50 billion global valuation.
Chinese social media giant ByteDance is reportedly in talks with Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Limited to sell TikTok’s India business. Understandably, the move by ByteDance is in a bid to save its short-video making app’s fate in its biggest market by users, which has taken a hit since the relationship between India and China soured in recent times. The development assumes further significance given that tech giant Microsoft too is engaged in talks with ByteDance to buy a controlling stake in TikTok’s global operations before the September 15 deadline set by President Donald Trump’s administration. TikTok has been banned in India since the end of June due to border tensions between New Delhi and Beijing. TikTok chief executive officer Kevin Mayer reportedly approached Reliance Industries last month to see if the oil-to-telecom conglomerate was interested in buying a stake in the company’s India business.
