MrBeast Bids TikTok for $20 Billion!

A consortium from the United States led by James Stephen "Jimmy" Donaldson, better known as YouTuber MrBeast, has raised $20 billion or around Rp 325 trillion. This fund is intended to purchase the US version of the social media platform TikTok, which is currently at risk of being banned in the United States. Information about this offer was first revealed by Jesse Tinsley, an entrepreneur and founder of the website Employer.com.

Tinsley also disclosed that the consortium has secured two other prominent investors, namely David Baszucki, one of the founders and CEO of Roblox, and Nathan McCauley, one of the founders and CEO of Anchorage Digital. According to Tinsley, the offer from the group led by MrBeast is higher than that of other potential buyers.

He did not specify who those parties were, but it likely refers to Project Liberty, initiated by entrepreneurs Frank McCourt and Kevin O'Leary. However, Tinsley added that MrBeast's group has not yet made direct contact with ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company.

The offer from the consortium led by MrBeast is considered lower compared to TikTok’s valuation estimate according to CFRA Research. Senior Vice President of CFRA Research, Angelo Zino, stated that potential buyers of TikTok would need to prepare at least $40 billion to $50 billion or around Rp 655 trillion to Rp 818 trillion. This valuation estimate is based on TikTok's operations in the US, including the number of users, revenue generated in the region, and comparisons with competing apps.

TikTok has at least 115 million monthly active users (MAU) in the United States, slightly below Instagram, which has 131 million MAU. However, in terms of usage time and download numbers, TikTok outperforms other social media apps globally in Q1-2024. TikTok ranks as the top app with the most time spent by users, followed by YouTube.

In addition to these two groups, Elon Musk is also rumored to be a potential buyer for TikTok. This rumor surfaced after Bloomberg reported that Chinese officials were evaluating the possibility of selling TikTok’s US operations to Elon Musk if the US Supreme Court decides to enforce a ban on the app. However, TikTok representatives denied the rumor and confirmed that the information was false.

Recently, US President Donald Trump also revealed that Microsoft showed interest in acquiring TikTok. This statement was made during an interview when asked about potential buyers of TikTok.

President Trump said he “would say yes” to Microsoft buying TikTok but maintained that there are many interested parties that will be bidding to buy the app before a 75-day extension to decide its fate expires in April.

“We’ll see what happens. We’re going to have a lot of people bidding on it,” Trump added.

However, neither ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, nor Microsoft seems to have commented on Trump’s statement.