While the Chinese Government said it would much rather see TikTok get shut down than abide by the U.S. Government's forced sale edict, the company itself is reportedly exploring the scenarios under which it would be able to be acquired by a U.S. provider, following the approval of a bill compelling the company to separate from its Chinese ownership.

With U.S. President Joe Biden signing off on the TikTok sale bill this week, TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, now face a tough call as Chinese officials certainly do not take kindly to the U.S. Government's push to force a sell-off.

The U.S. acted without cause by forcing the sale of the app without evidence of data misuse or propaganda, referring to them as stated reasons for the push, which the country presented. According to Wenbin:

"Such bullying behavior that cannot win in fair competition hampers normal business activities of companies, damages the confidence of international investors in the investment environment and damages the normal international economic and trade order."

According to China's viewpoint, push for sell off will hurt the nation's reputation in international trade and vowed to oppose the full sell-off of the app.

This could influence a crucial component, within TikTok's powerful recommendation algorithm.

TikTok's algorithm is believed to be its secret sauce: TikTok's system can quickly recognize your interests in real-time, meaning you get a more compelling video stream every time you open the app.

But China's export-control regulations enforce control over the sale of the systematic algorithm to the Chinese Government, which means that even if TikTok is sold, it is likely that back-end systems might not be available

This would reduce the overall value of the application significantly.

As per The Wall Street Journal, TikTok's currently valued to be anywhere between $20 billion to $100 billion, depending on what's in the package.

As WSJ states:

"Some investment banks and investors are pegging TikTok's valuation at five times its advertising and livestreaming revenue, according to people familiar with the matter. Last year, revenue from ads and live streams at TikTok, two of its biggest revenue drivers, was around $22 billion, people familiar with the matter said. That would place a potential valuation of TikTok at $110 billion."
But again, there's big price variance here depending on what's included, as a TikTok without its algorithm is a much riskier pitch, and one unlikely to perform similarly.

And, in reality, I'm not sure that the ByteDance itself would want to cede full access over to its algorithms either-not so much from a standpoint of proprietary information, but based on that which we know about likely elements contained within that code base.

As reported in 2020 by The Intercept, TikTok's algorithms had applied parameters to suppress posts designed by users "deemed too ugly, poor, or disabled for the platform.".

App officials later insisted that the parameters in play had never been used in the real TikTok app, only on the Chinese version of the service. Apparently, though, the view was that popularity of the app would be impacted by these clips.

However, most interestingly, the algorithm used by TikTok actually has the ability to identify such traits and then draw the attention of moderators for further action.

In other words, it means TikTok's systems are able to pick up on some very specific visual elements in uploads, which it then uses to show people more of what they like, and less of what they don't. That could mean TikTok's algorithms include other rather questionable parameters like this, which would raise serious concerns about the impact of a platform that can feed into these interests.

Is this a good thing- being able to recognize such visual elements and keeping the users hooked based on such?

I suspect that, if you had access to TikTok's full algorithmic listing of parameters, you might not feel so good about how its feed maintains its compulsion.

But again, that is TikTok's secret weapon, and the question now is: "How long can it remain secret?

If TikTok is to be sold, this is another key part in its next phase.