EXCLUSIVEKEVIN O'LEARY: How I'll save TikTok for America's 170 million users... and my challenge to its Chinese owners before we run out of time
Multi-millionaire entrepreneur and Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary says he can prevent the social media giant TikTok from going dark on Sunday.
Now, in an exclusive interview with Daily Mail hours after the US Supreme Court decided to allow President Joe Biden’s ban on TikTok to proceed, O’Leary has a message for the app’s Chinese owners: Let’s make a deal.
On Friday afternoon, the high court rejected an appeal from TikTok owner ByteDance, meaning the app may be forced to cut off service to its 170 million US users on Sunday unless ByteDance agrees to sell to a US entity.
Biden’s ban, signed in April, followed warnings from the US national security apparatus that the app posed a ‘grave’ national threat because of its owner’s ties to China’s authoritarian Communist government.
Indeed, even O’Leary has security concerns with TikTok, so he downloaded the app to a device that doesn’t contain any of his private information.
‘I have 1.4 million followers on TikTok, but on a burner phone with fake information in it… I know [the Chinese government] are looking at it. It’s not speculative,’ he said.
As of this moment, O’Leary’s syndicate formed in partnership with billionaire businessman Frank McCourt has made the only known bid to buy the service. And they’re offering to purchase the app, even without its core algorithm that personalizes each TikTok account for its user.
By law, if ByteDance’s owners are willing to sign a letter of intent (LOI), signaling their willingness to agree to a sale, the app will be allowed to stay online in the US for a further 90 days. O’Leary says that will buy ByteDance a window of time to allow them to hammer out the details of the deal.
Multi-millionaire entrepreneur and Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary says he can prevent the social media giant TikTok from going dark on Sunday.
The high court rejected an appeal from TikTok owner ByteDance, meaning the app may be forced to cut off service to its 170 million US users. (TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is pictured).
‘TikTok could operate as it stands for three more months, which is a very attractive option,’ he said. However, if ByteDance refuses to sign an LOI then O’Leary says the app will likely have to shut down on Sunday.
‘That's going to cause a fair amount of confusion in the marketplace in terms of ad revenue and users and everything else,’ O’Leary said.
‘That's a heart attack,’ he said.
For him, buying the app is too good an opportunity to pass up: ‘I've never seen a more complex situation in my life, a more interesting situation. I’ve never had a bigger opportunity.’ And he has bold plans to ‘fix’ it, as well.
‘We have to create a platform where people feel 100 percent comfortable letting their children use it, 100 percent comfortable that their data is not being mined by somebody, or that an adversary is not seeing any information about them,’ he said.
To do that, O’Leary wants to give users ownership of their personal data, and even offer them an opportunity to receive a share of the revenue that their data generates through its sale to advertisers.
‘I've never seen a more complex situation in my life, a more interesting situation. I’ve never had a bigger opportunity,' O'Leary said.
‘We'd like to let you determine what content areas you wish to be advertised and then have you participate in the revenue so you are a true partner. You own a piece of the business,’ he said.
As far as President-elect Donald Trump’s involvement, he has been public in support of a sale of TikTok, as he wants to keep the app online, but Trump has not specifically given O’Leary his backing.
‘He's encouraged us to continue,’ O’Leary said, ‘I basically asked him point blank: “Do you want to shut down TikTok or not?” And he said, “No, I think it has merit. I like competition in the market.”’
So with the hours counting down until the ban comes into effect, O’Leary tells the Mail he has a message for ByteDance.
‘I want to keep it going,’ he said. ‘I want it to stay lit up, and I'm willing to work with anybody within the TikTok organization or shareholders towards that objective.’
