A group led by the founder of OnlyFans has presented the latest proposal, joining Amazon, which had already formalized an offer. The deadline to find a buyer or face a ban in the US is April 5, as reported by Reuters.
The video platform has to strike a deal and find a non-Chinese buyer, at risk of being banned from the United States after US authorities raised security concerns over its proximity to China. TikTok and its owner ByteDance denied it.
A consortium led by startup Zoop, run by Tim Stokely, founder of the social network OnlyFans, has entered the bidding process to buy all of TikTok.
Amazon has already sent a letter to Vice President JD Vance and Commerce Department Secretary Howard Lutnick expressing its intention to acquire the platform. Something that fits into the strategy of selling more products and attracting a younger audience.
In 2014, Amazon invested almost US$1 billion in the purchase of Twitch, a real-time video streaming platform, after having purchased Goodreads the previous year. As early as 2025, he ended an attempt to replicate TikTok, which he called Inspire.
The White House-led negotiations aim to create a US entity for TikTok and dilute China’s stake in the new business to less than the 20% limit required by US law. Trump has announced four bids for the platform, including Blackstone and Oracle.
Private equity firm Blackstone is evaluating a proposal together with ByteDance’s non-Chinese shareholders, led by Susquehanna International Group and General Atlantic. Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is seeking outside funding to buy out TikTok’s Chinese investors as part of an Oracle-led bid to spin it off from ByteDance.
U.S. officials say ByteDance’s ownership of TikTok makes it dependent on the Chinese government, and Beijing could use the app to conduct influence operations against the United States and collect data on U.S. citizens.
