Chapter 1: What new deal has TikTok made to maintain its U.S. operations?
TikTok finally has a deal to let it stay in the U.S. From Marketplace, I'm Sabri Beneshour, in for David Brancaccio. TikTok says it has formed a joint venture for U.S. operations with majority American ownership. The deal is intended to address national security concerns that led to a law that would have banned the app. Marketplace's Nancy Marshall-Genzer joins us with the details. Hi, Nancy.
Good morning. So how will this new arrangement work, and how does it address the alleged national security concerns that led President Trump to try and ban TikTok during his first term?
Well, in a social media post last night, President Trump said TikTok will now be owned by, quote, a group of great American patriots and investors. Now, three managing investors will each hold a 15 percent stake in the joint venture, but only two of them are American. And the Chinese company ByteDance, which created TikTok, will retain a nearly 20 percent stake, Sabreeh.
You remember, of course, Congress passed a law in 2024 requiring ByteDance to sell its U.S. operations or be banned here.
Yeah. There were concerns that TikTok could be forced to share user data with Beijing or use its algorithm to push Chinese propaganda. Do we know who has ownership of that algorithm under this agreement?
Apparently, ByteDance, in a press release, it just says the new joint venture will retrain, test, and update the algorithm on U.S. user data, and the algorithm will be, quote, secured in Oracle's U.S. cloud environment.
So will I see much of a difference when I open up TikTok next?
No, Sabree.
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Chapter 2: How does the TikTok ownership structure address national security concerns?
The new joint venture is not expected to change your experience immediately. As the algorithm that serves up content is retrained, users might gradually see some changes in how content is presented to them. But TikTok's global arm will still manage things like e-commerce, advertising, and marketing. All right. Marketplaces. Nancy Marshall-Genzer, thank you so much. You're welcome.
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With a framework deal on Greenland, the temperature between the U.S. and Europe has come back down. The relationship, however, still got burned. And one question is whether Europe and the world are going to still want to be as closely tied to the U.S. financially. Specifically, could the appetite for U.S. debt shrink?
Christopher Lowe, chief economist at FHN Financial in New York, is here to talk about that and some of the week's other economic news. Hi, Chris.
Good morning, Sabri.
So for the first time since 1996, the world is holding more gold than U.S. bonds. Is this a sign of changing times, of a world that is less desirous of U.S.
debt? It is. And it traces back to the beginning of last year is when this trend really began. It reflects government policy. There's been a shift at central banks, particularly emerging markets, central banks, buying literally tens of metric tons of gold every month. But because that puts upward pressure on gold prices, private investors have also shifted to buying a lot of gold.
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