Caught in the crossfire between India and China, Chinese tech giant ByteDance has approached Mukesh Ambani for exploring the possibility of investing in TikTok's India operations, its biggest market by users. According to a report by TechCrunch, Reliance Industries (RIL) and ByteDance began conversations late last month and are yet to reach a deal.
A deal with RIL, which has amassed more than half of the global telecom investments this year, will make it easy for the Chinese TikTok to overcome its ban and get back in the good books of the Indian government. The report comes even as Microsoft is in discussions to take over a majority of TikTok's entire global business. A potential TikTok India acquisition might prove to be a sweet deal for Reliance Industries as the country is the short video creating app's biggest market, with more than 650 million downloads. TikTok’s business in India is being valued at more than $3 billion.
The talks of investment comes in the backdrop of TikTok India struggling to retain its employees in India. TechCrunch has reported that a handful of high-level executives at the company, including a policy head and Rohan Mishra, who oversaw ByteDance-owned Helo app’s operations in India, left the company last week.
According to a report published in The Economic Times, ByteDance has frozen hiring in India. Citing sources familiar with the matter, the report says the company is trying to retain its talent and has initiated a performance review cycle. At the same time, ByteDance has repeatedly assured its employees that it is in conversation with the Indian government to resolve New Delhi’s concerns and does not plan to lay off employees in the country.
Meanwhile, for RIL, an investment in TikTok could help the oil-to-retails giant make deeper connections with consumers. Reliance operates the telecom venture Jio Platforms, which has over 400 million users in India in less than four years of its existence. However, its consumer-facing apps have struggled to replicate that appeal.
RIL is also sitting on a hoard of investments after raising a total of Rs 1.52 lakh crore since April from investors including Facebook, KKR, Qualcomm, Silver Lakes and General Atlantic Singapore.
