Chinese giant ByteDance is in early talks with Reliance Industries Limited in support of TikTok’s company in India in a move to save the fate of the popular video app in its biggest market by users, two people familiar with the matter said to TechCrunch.
The two companies began talks late last month and have yet to reach a deal, the sources said, requesting anonymity because the talks are private. TikTok’s company in India, where it had gathered more than 200 million users before the end of June, was valued at more than $ 3 billion, said one source.
ByteDance did not respond to a request for comment.
An investment in TikTok could help the oil-to-retail giant Reliance, India’s most valuable company, build deeper connections with consumers. Reliance operates the telecom venture Jio Platforms.
Even though Jio Platforms has amassed nearly 400 million users in India in less than four years of its existence, its apps have targeted consumers to replicate that profession.
Since the end of April this year, the Indian giant’s digital venture has raised about $ 20 billion from 13 high-profile investors, including Facebook and Google. Google said it would work with Jio Platforms to launch a customized version of its Android mobile operating system to increase low-cost Android smartphones. Facebook said it would partner with Reliance to digitize the 60 million small and medium-sized businesses.
The preliminary talks between the two companies come because ByteDance is also struggling to retain some key employees in India. A handful of high-level executives at the company, including a policy head and Rohan Mishra, who oversees the operations of ByteDance’s Helo app in India, have left the company in recent weeks, according to people familiar with the case. Mishra did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday afternoon.
ByteDance has assured employees that it is in talks with the Indian government to resolve the concerns of New Delhi and does not intend to dismiss employees in the country. ByteDance employs about 2,000 people in India.
ByteDance is working separately with Microsoft to sell its business in select markets, including the US, the Windows maker confirmed earlier this month. The Financial Times reported last week that the two companies had expanded the scope of the deal to include TikTok’s business in other markets, including Europe and India.
Any deal with Reliance – owned by Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man and who is an ally of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi – could help byteDance raise concerns about the Indian government, which TikTok and 58 other apps banned developed by Chinese companies that provided security guards in late June.
Scores of local startups, including Share -hat and Twitter support ShareChat and Times Internet’s Gaana and MX Player, have launched standalone apps as integrated features to replicate the social experience TikTok provides to users. The local apps have claimed to have added tens of millions of new users in recent weeks.
Facebook, which launched Reels on Instagram in India last month, has seen daily involvement across its family of services more than 25% since the ban on TikTok, according to a person familiar with the matter.
