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TikTok, the short video app owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, is expanding in the United Kingdom, adding a new office and more than 500 jobs, while its fate in the US remains uncertain as a June 19 sell-or-ban deadline approaches.
The new 135,000 sq ft office in Barbican, London, is set to open early next year, according to a statement published on TikTok’s website on Monday. The additional jobs will grow its UK workforce to 3,000 this year, the company said.
In addition to its existing 88,500 sq ft Farringdon head office, TikTok’s total UK property investments would amount to around £140 million (US$190 million). The company also claimed its service had contributed £1.6 billion to the UK economy, with some 1.5 million businesses operating on TikTok, supporting 32,000 jobs.
TikTok said it “carefully evaluates where it chooses to invest and expand its operations” and has a “deep commitment to the UK”. The move comes as its average monthly active users in the country surpassed 30 million in the first quarter, making it TikTok’s largest market in Europe.
TikTok has been expanding overseas amid turmoil in its largest market, the US, where it has 170 million users. The administration of US President Donald Trump has since January delayed enforcing a law that requires ByteDance to divest the app or face a ban from US app stores and cloud providers. After previously extending the enforcement deadline in April, Trump said last month during an NBC interview that he would be willing to extend it again this month.
An agreement was in the works to spin off TikTok’s US operations into a new company majority-owned and operated by American investors, but it was put on hold after Beijing said it would not approve the deal amid an escalating trade war.
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