Other potential buyers include the philanthropist Frank Mccourt ’s Project Liberty, which is raising capital to make a bid for TikTok in order to “rearchitect the platform” and protect user data. McCourt is a billionaire who previously owned the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team. The project is supported by the social psychologist Jonathan Haidt.

The countdown is on again for a US-based buyer to take on TikTok, as it faces a ban. Euronews Next takes a look at the contenders to take over the app. View on euronews

Content creator Jimmy Donaldson, known on the Internet as MrBeast, has made it clear he is interested in buying TikTok. Donaldson has the most subscribers of any user on YouTube— over 340 million—and boasts over 113 million TikTok followers.

He previously floated a joint venture, saying that the US should be entitled to half of the app.

I met with the owners of Tiktok, the big owners, it’s worthless if it doesn’t get a permit,” Trump said. “It’s worth like a trillion dollars.”

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he would be supportive of the world's richest man and his close aide, Elon Musk, buying TikTok "if he wanted to". Trump was asked if he would be open to the billionaire founder of Tesla buying the short-video platform facing a nationwide ban in the US after the Supreme Court last week upheld a law requiring TikTok to sever ties with its Chinese parent ByteDance.

Donald Trump signed an executive order delaying the US ban on ByteDance's TikTok for 75 days, starting January 19.

TikTok’s Chinese parent company has just over two months to find a buyer for the app’s US business or face a nationwide ban, after getting a time extension from President Donald Trump.  There is already competition to own it.