The Sunday Times reported on the 19th that TikTok, a Chinese video-sharing social media, stopped discussing the plan to set up a global headquarter in London, England.
According to The Sunday Times, China’s Byte Dance, the parent company of TikTok, has been discussing with the British Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of International Trade in recent months. It wants to set up TikTok’s global headquarters in London. But recently it reportedly announced that it will stop discussing the matter.
Citing unnamed sources, the Sunday Times reported that Byte Dance has recently suspended consultations with the British government to set up a global headquarters. While citing its “wide geopolitical context.”
However, it is not yet clear whether TikTok actually stopped consultations with Britain. Because Reuters is saying TikTok is still in talks with the British government. TikTok and Byte Dance have not officially announced their position.
Tiktok headquarter plan in London fall through, related to Huawei?
The fact that Byte Dance stopped discussing the installation of its headquarters with the U.K. seems to be related to the fact that the U.K. has decided to stop purchasing 5G equipment from Chinese telecommunication equipment maker Huawei from next year. And then to remove all Huawei equipment from its network entirely by 2027.
The Chinese government has repeatedly criticized Britain for excluding Huawei from the 5G network construction project, signaling retaliatory measures.
TikTok’s parent company, Byte Dance’s headquarter is in Beijing, China. And TikTok currently has no global headquarters. Kevin Meyer from Walt Disney, who is now TikTok’s CEO, currently works mainly in the United States.
TikTok has been pushing to set up its global headquarters outside China. It’s been yearning to shed its image as a Chinese company. Which has been cited as a leading candidate in addition to London, Singapore and Dublin, Ireland.
