TikTok confirmed Thursday that it has finalized an ownership restructuring establishing a majority American-owned entity structured to maintain competitive market position against rival platforms. The agreement balances security requirements with business competitiveness.
ByteDance, the Beijing-based technology company behind TikTok, has agreed to reduce its ownership stake to 19.9% in the American entity, while US investors control 80.1%. The ownership through Oracle, Silver Lake, MGX, and Michael Dell’s firm understands maintaining market competitiveness while implementing security.
The deal addresses the challenge that security measures shouldn’t cripple competitive position—American TikTok must remain competitive with YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, Snapchat Spotlight, and other short-form video platforms. Overly burdensome security could slow feature launches, degrade recommendation quality, reduce content variety, or create user experience friction that drives users to competitors. The structure aims to secure the platform while preserving competitive capabilities.
Leadership of the American entity falls to Adam Presser as CEO, with experience maintaining platform competitiveness alongside safety and security. The seven-member board includes technology investors understanding competitive dynamics alongside security experts. This governance balances security with competitiveness. Shou Chew’s board participation provides continued competitive perspective.
The new US entity implements security preserving competitiveness: data protection enabling continued personalization competing with rivals, algorithm security maintaining recommendation effectiveness driving engagement, moderation protecting users without over-restricting creative content, and software integrity enabling rapid development matching competitor pace. The recommendation algorithm retraining establishes independence while preserving discovery and engagement capabilities essential for competing. Security measures use efficient implementation avoiding performance degradation or feature limitations. Both governments approved this competitiveness-preserving approach.