If TikTok is to survive then it has to separate itself from its parent company ByteDance in China. Keeping this in mind, the popular social media app is reportedly in talks “to sell itself to Microsoft and other companies”, as per a report by The New York Times. Staying away from ByteDance seems like a logical step as US President Donald Trump is “weighing harsh actions against TikTok”. This includes putting ByteDance in the entity list, which will prevent American companies from doing business with it or simply banning TikTok, like India did.

After the ban in India, which had the second largest user base after China, it would be difficult for ByteDance to lose the US market too.

“TikTok has discussed other scenarios to alleviate concerns by U.S. officials. In one scenario, non-Chinese investors like Sequoia Capital, SoftBank and General Atlantic could purchase a majority stake in the app from ByteDance, people familiar with the discussions have said,” as per the report by The New York Times.

There is no official word from Microsoft about buying TikTok yet but discussions between both the companies were reported earlier as well. “Bloomberg reported that President Trump was poised to announce an order to force ByteDance to sell TikTok’s U.S. operations,” it added.

ByteDance is also considering listing its domestic business in Hong Kong or Shanghai, as per a report by Reuters, over rising tensions between China and US.

Meanwhile, TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer recently posted an open letter defending the app. “TikTok has become the latest target, but we are not the enemy. We are taking the first step of many to address these concerns and call on the industry to follow our lead for the benefit of users and creators everywhere,” he said.