MrBeast might just have handed American TikTok users a lifeline, as he's now confirmed that a serious offer is being prepared to purchase the short form video content app - at least in the United States.
TikTok's future has remained up in the air for the best part of the year following the bipartisan bill President Biden signed into law in April 2024 that would ban the social media app in the United States unless it was sold within a year.
The reason behind this threatened ban - which comes closer to reality with every passing day - is due to concerns over national security, specifically that TikTok parent company ByteDance has alleged links to the Chinese government.
Justice department lawyer Elizabeth B. Prelogar has claimed that the app could be used by China "at any time to harm the United States," and if TikTok isn't sold to an entity that is unconnected to a 'foreign adversary' by January 19, it will officially be removed from the US market.
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Reports have alleged that Elon Musk has been in talks to purchase the app, but YouTube sensation Jimmy "MrBeast" Donaldson has confirmed his own interest in buying TikTok with the support of 'several billionaires'.
This all started when MrBeast posted on X: "Okay fine, I'll buy TikTok so it doesn't get banned." This was followed up with a reply that declared: "Unironically I've had so many billionaires reach out to me since I tweeted this, let's see if we can pull this off."
While it's unclear whether Donaldson's initial post was fully serious, he's now officially confirmed his interest in a video on the app that he wishes to buy.
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The video, captioned "TikTok check your inbox [eyes emoji] @TikTok" shows MrBeast in a room with his 'lawyer' holding a briefcase, and the words 'How We Buy TikTok' on several whiteboards behind the pair.
"I just got out of a meeting with a bunch of billionaires - TikTok we mean business," declares MrBeast. He goes on to say that he has an offer ready to buy the platform, that "America deserves TikTok," and that he wants to "save this platform."
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This certainly appears to be an expression of intent, but it's still not fully clear whether MrBeast intends to go through with this or whether it's some kind of elaborate joke.
While there's no doubt that Donaldson is rich, having earned around $85,000,000 in 2024 alone, it would take quite a few billionaires in order to support a bid large enough to purchase even the American portion of TikTok. Reports indicate that it would take anywhere between $62 billion and $77 billion to purchase the US side, stretching up to $180 billion to pick up the app in its entirety.
Concessions might be made considering the situation that would leave the app removed from the region entirely, but it certainly won't make it much cheaper.
Some have even speculated that America doesn't 'need' TikTok any more after many have flocked over to Chinese alternative Xiaohongshu, otherwise known as RedNote.
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There also remains a fear that the bid, if successful, would leave TikTok in a similar state to Twitter following Elon Musk's takeover. "This could be arguably worse than Elon buying Twitter," argues one user in reaction to MrBeast's potential bid, but it would take a significant loss to match the 72% drop in value that Twitter has suffered since October 2022.