Tech Desk 
Apr 03, 2025
As the deadline for TikTok divestiture closes in for ByteDance, Amazon has emerged as a key player in the stockpile of investors and bidders willing to buy TikTok.
By April 5, the short-video social media site has been obliged to either be banned in the US or be sold to a non-Chinese entity under a 2023 law introduced on national security grounds.
Aside from the retail juggernaut, a consortium led by OnlyFans founder Tim Stokely is also among the renowned players who have thrown their hats into the ring for TikTok, Reuters reported.
The biggest factors behind barring the Chinese social media platform are the security concerns owing to its ties with the Chinese government, something which both TikTok and its parent, ByteDance, have denied.
Amazon sent a letter to Vice President JD Vance and Department of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick detailing its plans to purchase TikTok, as confirmed by a US administration official.
Following the development suggesting its pursuit of TikTok US' operations, Amazon's shares rose by nearly 2%.
To be able to sell more goods and attract a younger audience, the e-commerce giant has long been ambitious about having an in-house social media platform on its portfolio, something which is evident in its acquisition of Twitch in 2014 for approximately $1 billion and book review site Goodreads in 2013.
