Microsoft Drops National Security Hints and Confirms It’s Pursuing TikTok Deal

Microsoft will likely be the next owner of TikTok’s U.S. operations, if there is one at all. The video app could join a product family that includes Word, Excel, Internet Explorer, Azure, Xbox, Bing, LinkedIn, Skype, GitHub, HoloLens, and Minecraft. It’s a weird family.

Consumer and social services haven’t been Microsoft’s star children, but TikTok could change that. Engagement is climbing on the app, which says it has 100 million U.S. users and expects to drive $500 million in U.S. revenue this year.

Microsoft, which still needs the White House’s approval, dropped national security easter eggs in a corporate blog post yesterday, saying it will bring “world-class security” to TikTok.

• The Pentagon trusted that security enough to award Microsoft with the $10 billion JEDI cloud contract. Tens of thousands of companies trust that security to keep their mail, documents, and IP safe.
• Microsoft would also be acquiring TikTok’s service in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. These countries, along with the U.S. and UK, are members of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance.

Zoom out: The world could soon have three TikToks: 1) ByteDance's Chinese version known as Douyin, 2) a Microsoft-owned TikTok in four English-speaking countries, and 3) a ByteDance-owned TikTok everywhere else.