YouTuber Turned Billionaire Mr Beast is Hinting He Might Buy TikTok

The YouTuber turned billionaire has been hinting at buying a massive social media platform

In April 2024, President Joe Biden signed a bill which demanded ByteDance sell TikTok to a US-approved buyer or there would be a total ban of the app in the US. Fast forward to today and the app is projected to be banned by 19 January. 

But wait: the infamous and mega popular YouTuber Mr Beast tweeted his interest in purchasing TikTok before it gets banned. 

Can Mr Beast actually buy TikTok? 

After posting on Monday, Mr Beast - whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson -  followed up with another tweet saying, "Unironically I've had so many billionaires reach out to me since I tweeted this, let's see if we can pull this off." 

In a post shared on TikTok on Wednesday, Mr Beast told everyone he’s been actively talking to potential investors. The app is worth an estimated $100 billion with the algorithm or $40 to $50 billion without the algorithm. However, multiple sources say different amounts for how much TikTok is actually worth with the value of its algorithm. Mr Beast’s net worth is estimated to be at least $500 million so this might be a bit out of his reach. 

The legislation for the ban started during the Trump administration, with government officials accusing the platform of being a security threat due to DanceByte being based out of Beijing. But since then Trump has asked the Supreme Court to delay the ban. 

@studentedge @MrBeast where you at #ustikok #ustiktokban #tiktokban #studentlife #studentedge #genz ♬ I hear your voice its like an angel - GreenScreams

Who else is interested in buying TikTok? 

There have also been other companies that have put their hat in the ring into buying TikTok or its US-based assets. 

Video sharing platform Rumble offered to buy TikTok in March last year, however neither Rumble nor its CEO Chris Pavlovski disclosed details about the offer. 

Project Liberty, an internet advocacy group run by billionaire Frank McCourt submitted a proposal – backed by Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary, Guggenheim Securities and others on Jan 9 to buy TikTok’s US based assets. 

Activision Blizzard’s former CEO, Bobby Kotick said he had an interest in buying TikTok alongside OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and others to help finance it. 

A former TikTok employee suggested to Forbes that Amazon could potentially buy the app due to Amazon having a partnership that allows users to buy Amazon products on TikTok. 

Steve Mnuchin, former Treasury Secretary told CNBC in March 2024 he planned to “put together a group” to buy TikTok, later telling Bloomberg in May that he had reached out to multiple tech companies about buying the app and recreating its algorithm that ByteDance said wouldn’t be included in the sale. 

The lifespan of TikTok in the US may not be dead just yet – there’s still hope for some billionaire to fork out the money to save the millions of shortform videos floating around on TikTok.  

Even if it does get banned, many people have already started migrating to RedNote – a China-based app that looks similar to Instagram and offers people shortform videos, much like TikTok.