TikTok, which was banned in India last year, is now considering selling its operations to an Indian company. Bloomberg’s report says that ByteDance Ltd is thinking of selling TikTok’s Indian operations to its anti-startup Glance.
Bloomberg quoted people with knowledge of the matter as saying that Japan’s SoftBank Group Corporation has started talks. SoftBank has invested in both Glance’s parent company InMobi and TikTok’s parent company ByteDance.
According to the report, negotiations are going on between SoftBank, ByteDance and Glance and any deal will require the approval of the Government of India. The report said that SoftBank and ByteDans did not respond to Bloomberg’s email and a Glance spokesperson declined to comment.
What would India want from this deal?
Bloomberg report says that SoftBank is trying to save TikTok’s Indian assets and is looking for a local partner. In the US too, TikTok was banned by the Trump administration, but the Biden administration has banned the amalgamation of US operations. The new US administration has asked the Federal Judge to stop the case now.
India had banned TikTok last year amid a border dispute with China in eastern Ladakh. India cited security reasons for this decision.
If the interaction between Glance and ByteDance increases, the Indian government may ask to keep TikTok’s data and technology within Indian borders. The report quoted people with knowledge of the matter as saying that relations between Delhi and Beijing were still tense and that India would not discount China-based technology companies.
China’s new rules regarding technology exports can also complicate negotiations. For the sale of TikTok, permission may also have to be obtained from the Chinese government.
What is glance?
Glance Digital Experience is a mobile content platform based in Bangalore. It was started by Naveen Tiwari from Harvard Business School. Tiwari is also the founder of India’s first unicorn InMobi.
Glance has a short video sharing platform app called Roposo. It started about 20 months ago. Roposo grew well after the ban on TikTok. It became a unicorn in December when it received funding from Mithril Capital of Google and Billionaire Peter Thiel.
