The news: TikTok is formalizing a sale to US owners to avoid a ban after a year of multiple deadline extensions and an executive order signed by President Donald Trump nearly three months back. The company will restructure its US operations under a binding agreement that creates a new joint venture majority-owned and governed by American investors, Axios reports from a memo by CEO Shou Zi Chew. The deal has a closing date of January 22, 2026.

• The investor group—Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX—will hold a combined 50% stake, while affiliates of existing ByteDance investors will control 30.1% and ByteDance will retain 19.9%.
• The joint venture will oversee a new algorithm retrained on US user data. A seven-member, majority-American board will oversee US data protection, moderation, software assurance, and algorithm retraining. Oracle will host and secure all domestic user data.
• CNN reports that while ByteDance will continue handling global ecommerce, marketing, and advertising, TikTok US will control all governance for American users.
• The deal still requires approval from Chinese regulators, but it is the closest the platform has come to long-term legal certainty in the United States.

Why it matters: This restructuring shifts TikTok from a global product available in the US to a US-governed platform with a global parent—an operational change with broad implications for advertisers and creators.

• The deal brings stability after years of uncertainty that kept brands from fully investing amid ban threats. A federal judge recently cited TikTok as evidence Meta lacks monopoly power, underscoring TikTok’s role in a competitive attention economy—and why advertisers value its continued stability.
• A US-retrained recommendation algorithm and local oversight may ease national security concerns, but they also create technical distance between TikTok US and ByteDance’s global systems. That separation could affect the speed of product rollouts, the consistency of features across markets, and the pace of innovation that made TikTok so culturally dominant.
• At the same time, the US venture will be under heavier scrutiny than ever. With American governance and data localization come expectations of tighter compliance, clearer accountability, and a more formalized approach to content and ad safety. TikTok’s “move fast” identity will still exist culturally, but institutionally it now operates as a regulated media platform.

Key takeaway for marketers: TikTok should now have greater US operational stability, removing the existential risk that constrained planning cycles. Given the joint venture’s conservative ownership, marketers should treat the next year as a recalibration period and closely monitor early signal changes in recommendation behavior, ad delivery, and creator reach.

• Uncertainty in the rearview mirror will mean an acceleration of its US ad revenues. We forecast 22.3% growth next year, far better than 2025's 14.8%. Brands can now build multi-quarter programs without preparing for a sudden shutdown.
• While it’s unclear how a US algorithm will take shape, brands can expect stricter moderation, ad safety controls, and transparency requirements. With US oversight in place, TikTok will face pressure to match the compliance expectations applied to Meta, Google, and YouTube.
• Algorithm retraining on US data may temporarily shift performance patterns. Marketers should watch for changes in creative best practices, CPMs, and audience behavior as the feed adapts.
• TikTok’s innovation cadence may slow compared with its ByteDance-run peers abroad, but new US-exclusive features could emerge as the company tailors products to American regulators and advertisers.