UPDATE:
According to British media, TikTok has reportedly backed out of this plan due to the increasing tension between the UK and China. Recently, the UK decided to ban Huawei gear from its 5G network infrastructure.
Original story…
TikTok, the world’s most popular short video social media platform, has received a lot of heat in the past months mainly because of two reasons — its data collection practices and its Chinese ownership.
To improve the perspective, a new report coming from Reuters claims that the company is now looking to relocate its headquarters away from China. It is considering several locations, including London, but nothing has been confirmed yet.
TikTok, owned by China-based ByteDance, is expected to “significantly” increase the size of its workforce in London and other key locations outside of China over the next several years, claims the report.
It’s noteworthy that the company has been aggressively hiring in California, United States. The company even poached former Walt Disney co-executive Kevin Mayer to become the CEO, which is based in the United States.
Earlier, it was reported that TikTok is planning to form a new management board along with establishing headquarters outside of China to distance itself from its origin country. The company has also confirmed that it is weighing changes to its corporate structure.
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Soon after the Indian government banned TikTok and 58 other Chinese applications, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the administration is “looking at” banning the app in the United States. However, China has claimed that the selective ban of TikTok and other apps by the Indian government is against WTO rules.
A few days ago, the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) fined TikTok 186 million won or roughly 155,000 US Dollars for mishandling child data. The fine is equivalent to 3% of the company’s annual sales within the country, which is in line with the designated amount for such violations under local privacy laws.
In April this year, it was reported that TikTok had crossed 2 billion app downloads across iOS and Android. In the first quarter of this year alone, the company reportedly saw 315 million downloads — a new record for any smartphone app.
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