(Reuters) – China’s ByteDance is in early talks with Reliance Industries Ltd for an investment in its video-based app TikTok’s business in India, TechCrunch reported on Thursday, citing sources.
The two companies began conversations late last month and have not reached a deal yet, according to the report.
Reliance, ByteDance and TikTok did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
The Indian government in June banned 59 Chinese apps, including TikTok and WeChat, for threatening its “sovereignty and integrity” after border tensions with China.
Last week, US President Donald Trump unveiled bans on US transactions with the China-based owners of messaging app WeChat and TikTok, escalating tensions between the two countries.
Microsoft Corp has been in talks to acquire the US operations of the video-sharing app.
Social media platform Twitter Inc has also expressed interest in having a deal with TikTok, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters late last week.
The news of Twitter and TikTok being in preliminary talks and Microsoft still being seen as the front-runner in bidding for the app’s US operations was reported earlier by the Wall Street Journal.
Twitter has a market capitalization of close to $30 billion, almost as much as the valuation of TikTok’s assets to be divested, and would need to raise additional capital to fund the deal, according to the sources.
(Reporting by Sabahatjahan Contractor in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Soni)
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