TikTok’s U.S. operations could be worth as much as $50 billion if ByteDance decides to sell
Business moguls such as Elon Musk should be prepared to spend tens of billions of dollars for TikTok's U.S. operations should parent company ByteDance decide to sell.
TikTok is staring at a potential ban in the U.S. if the Supreme Court decides to uphold a national security law in which service providers such as Apple and Google would be penalized for hosting the app after the Sunday deadline. ByteDance has not indicated that it will sell the app's U.S. unit, but the Chinese government has considered a plan in which X owner Musk would acquire the operations, as part of several scenarios in consideration, Bloomberg News reported Monday.
If ByteDance decides to sell, potential buyers may have to spend between $40 billion and $50 billion. That's the valuation that CFRA Research Senior Vice President Angelo Zino has estimated for TikTok's U.S. operations. Zino based his valuation on estimates of TikTok's U.S. user base and revenue in comparison to rival apps.
TikTok has about 115 million monthly mobile users in the U.S., which is slightly behind Instagram's 131 million, according to an estimate by market intelligence firm Sensor Tower. That puts TikTok ahead of Snapchat , Pinterest and Reddit , which have U.S. monthly mobile user bases of 96 million, 74 million and 32 million, according to Sensor Tower.
