Buying TikTok could take coming up with more than $100 billion and getting around a Chinese government ban of the recommendation algorithms that make the video app work, but former Treasury Secretary and investment banker Steven Mnuchin has been telling people he can get around all that.
His plan, reports The Washington Post, is to do away with the TikTok algorithm — basically, the guts of the service — and have it rebuilt from scratch.
According to Mnuchin, he could offer to buy the app without the code, which would force programmers to rebuild its billions of lines of coding, and the provision might allow TikTok to be bought at more of a bargain price, two people familiar with his pitch told The Post, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
The idea is being ridiculed by observers and at least one person close ot the pitch, who say that Mnuchin's plan suggests that he is unfamiliar with how tech companies operate.
The app is popular because it gives suggestions to users about the videos they'll enjoy. And so far, duplicating a recommendation algorithm has been difficult even for pros at Meta, with Instagram, and Google and its YouTube.
"Everyone wants to build a TikTok-level algorithm," said Matt Perault, a University of North Carolina professor and former Facebook director. "That's a key element of competition in the tech sector right now.
"All the biggest companies have thrown a lot of money and engineering talent at that issue and have struggled to do it," he added. "If Steve Mnuchin thinks he can do that and succeed where a lot of successful companies have struggled, good luck."
Mnuchin is facing other challenges as well. The House has passed a bill calling for China-based ByteDance, the app's parent company, to divest or face a national ban in the United States; but the push is stalled in the Senate and would likely face court battles if the bill is passed.
However, the company is not for sale.
Further, if the bill becomes law, it will force ByteDance to divest within six months or face a nationwide ban, giving Mnuchin and his team a tight window to replicate the algorithm TikTok has been perfecting since its launch in 2017.
"This is like rebuilding Facebook," a source with knowledge of Mnuchin's pitch commented. "That's the task here. It can't be done in 180 days — or even years."
Mnuchin declined to comment to The Post, but he told CNBC earlier this month that TikTok needs to be rebuilt in the United States.
"There's a lot that can be done in six months," he said. "Hopefully, we can find a solution where China will allow it to be sold. The Chinese will agree to do that as long as there's not a transfer of their critical technology, which I don't think we need in the U.S."
He said he's spoken with several businesses and billionaires, including Bobby Kotik, the former head of the Activision Blizzard video game empire, and the tech giant Oracle.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.