on the early morning of september 26th, beijing time, us president donald trump signed an executive order announcing that the new version of tiktok's us operation plan meets us legal requirements and allows it to continue operating in the united states. according to the agreement, a joint venture company valued at $14 billion, "tiktok us data security joint venture", will be responsible for data and content security, while tiktok us's overall business valuation remains close to $40 billion. this progress marks a breakthrough in the years-long tiktok us incident.
earlier, at the sino-us talks in madrid on september 15th, the two sides had reached a basic consensus on the tiktok issue. wang jingtao, deputy director of the national internet information office of china, said that china and the united states would resolve the dispute through methods such as entrusted operation and intellectual property authorization. bytedance subsequently announced on september 19th that it would promote related work in accordance with the law. the new plan establishes a dual-subject structure: tiktok us, wholly owned by bytedance, is responsible for commercial operations, while the data security joint venture will introduce external investment, with bytedance holding a 19.9% stake and maintaining its status as the largest shareholder. the two sides will establish a revenue-sharing mechanism, and bytedance will retain the algorithm intellectual property rights and supply them to the us side through authorization.
chinese experts pointed out that the plan adopts the internationally common "entrusted operation" model, which not only complies with chinese laws and regulations, but also responds to the us's security concerns. professor shen yi of fudan university emphasized that the plan not only safeguards national interests but also protects the overseas rights of chinese enterprises. similar cases include apple entrusting "yun dian shang guizhou" to operate icloud, and microsoft's cooperation with century internet. analysts believe that this compromise solution provides a new model for sino-us digital economic and trade cooperation.
