TikTok is officially here to stay in the US, under new ownership. On the evening of January 22, the platform announced that a joint venture has officially been established in compliance with the Executive Order signed by President Donald Trump on September 25, 2025, according to the company. The news came one day before Trump’s deadline for the transfer of ownership from Chinese company Bytedance to a group of US investors.
This new venture means that TikTok in the US will be spun off from the global TikTok platform, which will remain owned by Bytedance. TikTok US will be operated by three managing investors — Silver Lake, Oracle and MGX — each holding 15%, alongside a host of other investors. Bytedance retains 19.9% of the joint venture. The establishment of the US entity comes after a years-long seesaw that saw TikTok’s US operations debated, threatened, advanced, and briefly paused last January.
“The majority American-owned joint venture will operate under defined safeguards that protect national security through comprehensive data protections, algorithm security, content moderation and software assurances for US users,” the group said in a statement.
For brands and creators, the news ought to result in sighs of relief, after years of administrative flip-flopping, leaving their platform-based followings at the whims of officials and shifting regulation. But creators have grown weary of the back and forth, with many convinced well before the news that TikTok would remain available in the US, one way or another. Users in the US have also expressed concern over whether or not their TikTok algorithms will change under new ownership, potentially disrupting the tailored content mix the app is known for. If the algorithm does change, creators and brands will need to quickly get accustomed to a new playbook for what does well.
But at least the question over whether TikTok will remain in the US is settled. “Overall, this deal is positive news for the creator economy — above all because it finally brings clarity to a long-running threat of a US TikTok ban that’s cast a shadow over the industry,” says Ed East, CEO and co-founder of influencer marketing agency Billion Dollar Boy. “TikTok has continued to thrive despite the uncertainty, but long-term investment — both from brands and creators — suffers in the absence of stability.” For brands, this newfound stability means investment in TikTok as an advertising platform is a safer bet.
A new TikTok?
The joint venture announcement states that it will “retrain, test, and update the content recommendation algorithm on US user data”.
This is, in social media consultant Matt Navarra’s view, the most consequential line in TikTok’s announcement. Even if the main algorithm is licensed — therefore remaining theoretically the same — retraining it exclusively on US user data means that the content it pushes will inevitably shift.
“Retraining the algorithm on US user data doesn’t just affect what people see, it can affect whose culture and behavior the platform optimizes for,” he says. “In practice, that could mean stronger prioritization of US engagement patterns; more emphasis on brand-safe, advertiser-friendly signals; or potentially less amplification of fringe or more experimental, chaotic content.”
This is a double-edged sword for brands, experts agree. On the one hand, it could mean further predictability and stability, due to closer regulation. But on the other, less amplification of niche creators and subcultures could inadvertently hurt the brands who have seen such success by tapping into these niches.
Regardless, experts don’t anticipate that the news will impact brand or creator engagement on the platform, save for instilling confidence in long-term investments. Per Billion Dollar Boy’s research, the threat of a ban had minimal impact on platform activity on TikTok. The average number of creator posts following the ban announcement fell by just 3% (based on the activity of over 10,000 creators across the US and the UK), while Instagram and YouTube Shorts activity rose 16% and 14%, respectively. Billion Dollar Boy’s East took it as a sign that the drama drove diversification, rather than an exit from the platform altogether.
“Even in the midst of uncertainty, TikTok continued to thrive because it’s such a strong part of the marketing ecosystem and delivers effective results,” East says. “It serves as a hub for community-building, a discovery tool, the primary channel for reaching Gen Z, and an e-commerce leader. With the deal now closed and the platform safer than it has been in over a year, the uncertainty that drove short-term investment will give way to more confidence on the platform and long-term investment from both creators and brands.”
Creator Kira Kirby, whose content focuses on jewelry, is cautiously optimistic. She’s grateful not to have to worry about the “impending doom” of a ban upending her TikTok career, and is hopeful that the next phase will be amenable to creators. “Though with new ownership always comes growing pains, whether that be in the form of algorithm shifts, political interference or pressure, or unknown backend changes that the public aren’t privy to,” she says.
But the algorithm shift to US governance could also impact TikTok’s infamous virality, and therefore the strong results that brands and creators have grown accustomed to, Navarra says. “[Now that] the US feed is more siloed and managed by [software company and investor] Oracle to keep data domestic, we could see the end of global virality. It might be harder for a trend from Europe or Asia to hit the US feed organically, or vice versa.”
This is a potentially major obstacle for brands and creators that have long relied on TikTok’s viral-friendly algorithms to push their content far wider than other platforms like Instagram and YouTube. This will likely mean that brands will have to spend more on local or US-specific content to achieve historic levels of reach, Navarra warns. “The data is locked in the US, but brands have to work a bit harder to spark trends now that the algorithm is essentially Americanized.”
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