As the weekend deadline for TikTok to find a buyer approaches, bidders for the short-video social media site are piling up.
Amazon and, separately, a consortium led by OnlyFans founder Tim Stokely are the latest to throw their hats into the ring for TikTok. The site faces an Apr 5 deadline to reach a deal to find a non-Chinese buyer under threat of being banned from the United States.
US officials have raised security concerns over the app’s ties to China, which TikTok and owner ByteDance have denied. Trump administration officials are meeting on Wednesday (Apr 2) to discuss the various options for TikTok.
Startup Zoop, which is run by Stokely, founder of adult content social media site OnlyFans, has partnered with a cryptocurrency foundation to submit a late-stage plan to bid for TikTok, the two told Reuters Wednesday.
A US administration official confirmed Amazon had sent a letter to Vice President JD Vance and Department of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Amazon declined to comment, while TikTok and ByteDance did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Shares of Amazon rose about 2 percent following news of the last-minute TikTok bid.
Amazon has long harbored ambitions for an in-house social media network that could help it sell more goods and appeal to a younger audience. It bought live video site Twitch in 2014 for nearly US$1 billion and book review site Goodreads in 2013 as part of its efforts to build a viable social network.
Amazon also developed and tested a TikTok-like short-form video and photo feed called Inspire that it shuttered earlier this year.
