TikTok has 50 million daily active users in the US, it says in lawsuit

Video-sharing platform TikTok unveiled that it has around 50 million daily active users and 92 million monthly active users in the US by June, according to its lawsuit filing against the US government.

It also claimed that it had around 689 million global monthly active users by July and surpassed two billion global downloads by August in more than 200 countries.

Photo credit: ByteDance

Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump issued an executive order banning any US transactions with TikTok operator ByteDance over concerns that the app would collect the personal data of Americans.

ByteDance is counter-suing. “This action seeks to prevent the government from impermissibly banning TikTok,” an app that “100 million Americans use to create and share short videos composed of expressive content,” said the lawsuit filing.

According to the short-video platform, it “protects the privacy and security” of its US user data by hosting them outside of China (in the US and Singapore). It also erected software barriers that help ensure that TikTok stores its US user data separately from data of other ByteDance products.

Following this, Microsoft confirmed that it was pursuing a potential takeover of TikTok. It seeks to complete the talks by September 15.

Oracle, another perspective buyer, is reportedly approaching other parties, including Sequoia Capital, to buy TikTok’s operations in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

It was also recently reported that ByteDance investors, including General Atlantic, are in discussions to bid for TikTok. They’re looking to use their stakes in ByteDance to finance the move.