Amazon Has Put in an Offer to Acquire The Entire TikTok Platform

As the TikTok ban looms in the United States following President Trump’s extension of the shutdown, Amazon has reportedly made an eleventh-hour bid to acquire the entire platform. This news comes from the New York Times, wherein it was also revealed that nobody appears to be taking the offer seriously.

In recent months, a few potential buyers have been touted in the press, such as Bobby Kotick and the owners of Kick.com.

Could Amazon be about to acquire the biggest video-sharing platform in the world?

Last-Minute Purchase

Amazon could be set to acquire TikTok to prevent the platform from being eradicated from the United States – and to pry it from the hands of its Chinese owners. TikTok faces a nationwide ban in America following concerns being raised regarding the inherent security of the app, given the ties it has to Beijing.

The recent article posted in the New York Times explains that ‘parties who have been involved in the talks do not appear to be taking Amazon’s bid seriously’.

That might be down to how the bid has surfaced:

The bid came via an offer letter addressed to Vice President JD Vance and Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, according to a person briefed on the matter.

Attempts to reach ByteDance (TikTok’s owner) and Amazon have been fruitless, and nobody has any insight into how much Amazon has put forward for the acquisition or to what extent it could go ahead.

Amazon already owns Twitch, the premier streaming site that outclasses competing platforms like YouTube and Kick.com. If it were to acquire TikTok, it would have a dominant hold over content creators and streamers worldwide.

Unfortunately for Amazon, TikTok might not be for sale in the first place. In a statement released on January 18, ByteDance revealed a willingness to let TikTok go dark in the United States if the government enforced the ban.

Do you think Amazon buying TikTok is a shrewd move?