Potential TikTok bidder seeks a CEO, prepares business overhaul

Krystal Hu - Reuters - 21/12
U.S. billionaire businessman Frank McCourt is crafting a fundamental overhaul of TikTok's business model as part of a plan to bid for the Chinese-owned short-form video app, he told Reuters.
  • Billionaire Frank McCourt says TikTok could eventually earn money from ecommerce and data licensing
  • McCourt and his team have spoken with incoming Trump administration about a bid for TikTok
  • McCourt is seeking a new CEO for TikTok
Dec 20 (Reuters) - U.S. billionaire businessman Frank McCourt is crafting a fundamental overhaul of TikTok's business model as part of a plan to bid for the Chinese-owned short-form video app, he told Reuters.
McCourt, who formerly owned the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, said he has received verbal funding commitments totaling $20 billion from a consortium of investors to rescue the app from legal purgatory as it awaits a Supreme Court decision to determine if it will be forced to sell its U.S. operations.
His vision for TikTok includes revamping the company's advertising model so that users will have control over the ads and type of content they want to see. Over time, TikTok could earn revenue through ecommerce and licensing data for artificial intelligence training models - with users' consent - which will diminish the business' reliance on ads.
"When you give permission for your data to be used and you receive compensation, it's flipping this 180 degrees and giving the user the power," McCourt said this week.
The plan faces several hurdles, including TikTok's repeated assertions that it cannot be divested from its owner, Chinese tech firm ByteDance.
McCourt said the bid for ...
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