Trump targets TikTok for termination ---------------------------------------- U.S. President Donald Trump wants to ban TikTok, the Chinese-made social media app known for its quirky short video clips, a move that will further damage relations between Washington and Beijing ---------------------------------------- Mar 2012: ByteDance founded. Neihan Duanzi joke sharing app launched ---------------------------------------- Aug 2012: Launches Toutiao Chinese news gathering service ---------------------------------------- Sep 2016: Creates A.me (later rebranded Douyin). App allows users to create and share short dance, lip-sync, comedy and talent videos ---------------------------------------- Sep 2017: Douyin, now with 100m users, rebrands as TikTok in some markets outside China and launches on iOS and Android ---------------------------------------- Nov 2017: ByteDance makes $1bn acquisition of Musical.ly – rival Chinese lip-sync video service with 90m users and offices in California ---------------------------------------- Aug 2018: TikTok absorbs Musical.ly to create larger video community, consolidating accounts and data into one app. Launches worldwide, including in U.S. ---------------------------------------- TIKTOK STATISTICS Average daily use, per person 52 mins Global videos watched daily 1bn Countries using app 155 Active monthly users 800m ByteDance founder and CEO Zhang Yiming Acquiring TikTok in U.S. would allow Microsoft to expand its small range of consumer technology assets Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is seeking to buy TikTok Third highest social media engagement among U.S. teens Instagram 85% Snapchat 82% TikTok 62% Trump fears Chinese tech firms are gathering sensitive data that could be shared with Chinese government Security firm Disconnect finds during first 9 seconds, TikTok app makes 210 network requests to send data from your mobile device to its servers – hiding gathered information ---------------------------------------- TikTok grows to at least 40m monthly active users in U.S. – one third in 16-24 age range ---------------------------------------- Jun 1, 2020: Kevin Mayer, formerly head of streaming at Disney, becomes CEO of TikTok ---------------------------------------- Jun 20: Trump’s election rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is ruined by TikTok and Twitter users who coordinate to register for tickets and do not turn up – leaving swathes of seats empty ---------------------------------------- Jun 29: India bans TikTok and other Chinese apps following deadly border clash with China ---------------------------------------- Jul 5: Australia faces calls to ban TikTok over national security concerns ---------------------------------------- Jul 6: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says Trump administration is looking at restricting access to TikTok ---------------------------------------- Aug 3: Trump says he will shut down TikTok on Sep 15, granting Microsoft six weeks to negotiate deal to buy U.S. arm ---------------------------------------- Sources: CNET, Forbes, BBC, Sky News, CNBC, Oberlo, Piper Sandler Portrait sources: ByteDance, Microsoft, Associated Press © GRAPHIC NEWS