TikTok USDS Joint Venture: Control and Influence over U.S. Operations

Who is it: TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC is a newly established American company that took majority control over TikTok's U.S. operations on January 22, 2026. Its formation follows a presidential order from September 25, 2025, requiring control to be transferred to American investors.

Current role/company: American investors — Oracle, Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi-based MGX — collectively hold 45% of the company. ByteDance, TikTok's Chinese parent company, retains a minority stake of 19.9%.

Why it matters now: In July 2026, the venture organized the 'Discover America' tour in six cities, presenting it as part of the USA's 250th anniversary celebrations, though analysts see it as a strategic PR move to highlight the platform's economic value.

Significance for the creator economy: Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) generated nearly $15 billion in revenue from paid advertising and marketing on TikTok in 2023. The platform's free services contributed approximately $24.2 billion to the U.S. GDP and supported over 224,000 jobs in the same year.

Sales on TikTok Shop in the U.S. reached $15.82 billion in 2025, representing a 108% year-on-year increase. 67% of users use TikTok Shop to discover new products, and 72% of newly discovered brands are small businesses.

Recent signals: Searches for 'small business' on the platform surged by 479% in the first quarter of 2026, and those for 'boutique small business' increased by 758% in the second half of 2025. All U.S. user data is now stored in Oracle's secure cloud environment within the country.

The content recommendation algorithm for American users is being entirely retrained on local data by mid-2026 to create a 'distinctly American' feed. New features like Local Feed for nearby businesses, the AI assistant Tako, and TikTok GO — a travel booking service launched in May 2026 — expand the platform's ecosystem beyond social media into e-commerce and tourism.

Risks and criticism: Timothy Edgar, a law professor at Harvard, and other cybersecurity experts argue that the creation of the American company has not fully resolved national security risks and may have even heightened privacy concerns. The new privacy policy from January 22, 2026, explicitly allows the collection of precise location data and information from interactions with AI tools.

ByteDance's retained 19.9% stake and the likely licensing of the core algorithm to the American company raise questions about the effectiveness of the separation.

What to watch: The 'follower-first' model introduced in 2026 may change how creators reach audiences, possibly limiting the viral growth of new accounts without many followers.