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TikTok navigates an uncertain future amid US bill
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If the US bans TikTok, Canada and the UK may follow the suit and prohibitions might spread globally.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Du Zhihang, Guan Cong, Qu Yunxu and Denise Jia
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BEIJING - Just six months ago, TikTok, the short-video app owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, was charging headlong into the US e-commerce market. From September through December, nearly US$1.2 billion of goods were sold on the platform used by 170 million Americans. This year, the app aims to generate as much as US$20 billion in gross merchandise volume (GMV) in the world’s biggest consumer market.
That goal is now threatened by legislation passed March 13 by the US House of Representatives and is pending in the Senate that would force the parent company to sell TikTok within 180 days or face a nationwide ban.
