US media reports said today that the giant US retail chain Wal-Mart is considering joining Microsoft in its offer to purchase the social networking application owned by a Chinese company, TikTok.
The US television network CNBC quoted Wal-Mart as saying in a statement that the merger of TikTok in e-commerce and advertising in other markets "represents a clear benefit to the creators and users in these markets."
The chain added that its joining Microsoft in submitting an offer to buy TikTok will satisfy the US government, which wants to buy an American company for the famous application, claiming that it is dangerous to US national security.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Microsoft is in talks with Walmart about a joint bid for TikTok.
It is noteworthy that the application TikTok, which allows users to prepare short videos and publish them online, has become a main point in the increasing tension between China and the United States, with the American administration pressuring the Chinese company to sell its branch in the United States to an American company. And US software giant Microsoft is in talks to buy the US subsidiary of TikTok.
This comes at a time when Kevin Mayer, CEO of the social networking application TikTok, resigned from his post late on Wednesday in light of pressure exerted by the administration of US President Donald Trump on the company as a "threat to US national security."
A spokesperson for TikTok said: "We appreciate that the political developments in the past few months have significantly changed the scope of the role that Kevin was supposed to play, and we fully respect his decision. We thank him for the time he spent in the company and we wish him well."
It is noteworthy that the application Tik Tok has become one of the most popular social networking applications in the United States. And the US military decided to ban its use. India also decided to ban it in light of the escalation of tension with China.
Meyer, an American, was one of the main points of defense that TikTok used to confirm that it was an American company and not a tool to collect user data for the Chinese government.
"Its collection of user data threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party to access personal and proprietary information of Americans," Trump said in the executive order he issued earlier this month regarding TikTok, considering TikTok a threat to US national security.
According to the Trump administration´s decision, TikTok will be banned in the United States if its American branch is not sold to an American company before mid-September, and ownership will be completely transferred to the American company by next November.
