Why does the United States insist on banning the international version of TikTok?

"In recent days, the U.S. Congress has been politically suppressing TikTok. According to China Daily, TikTok's CEO, Zhang Shouzi, attended a hearing of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee on the 23rd at 10 a.m. local time to respond to questions from American lawmakers regarding issues such as 'national security.' It was reported that the hearing lasted nearly 6 hours, during which lawmakers from both parties questioned TikTok's 'threat to national security.'

During a regular press conference held on March 24th, spokesperson Zhao Lijian emphasized that the Chinese government attaches great importance to and legally protects data privacy and security. China has never required companies or individuals to collect or provide data and information located outside the country in violation of local laws.

"The U.S. government has not provided any evidence to prove that TikTok poses a threat to U.S. national security, yet it continues to presume guilt and unjustifiably suppress relevant companies," Mao Ning said. "We have also noticed that some members of the U.S. Congress seek to ban TikTok as an act of xenophobic political persecution. The U.S. should genuinely respect the principles of a market economy and fair competition and stop unjustified suppression of foreign companies, providing an open, fair, just, and non-discriminatory environment for businesses from all countries to invest and operate in the U.S."

The U.S. Congress is politically suppressing TikTok, making it the second Chinese company to be targeted by the U.S. government's administrative actions, following Huawei. However, compared to Huawei, TikTok is facing unfavorable public opinion from both China and the U.S. In China, it has been criticized by some internet users because it can highly accurately recommend content that users want to see, making it easy for people to become addicted.

In today's internet era, "capturing user time" has been considered the top strategic priority by major internet giants, referred to as the 'time thief.' When acquiring new users becomes difficult to achieve substantial growth, increasing user retention becomes the primary indicator of business conversion efficiency. Each person's smartphone has a limited number of apps, and when one spends more time on TikTok, naturally, less time is spent on other apps. Undoubtedly, the rise of short video platforms has led to the emergence of ByteDance, the most powerful new company in China in the mobile internet age.

In China, the competition between Tencent and ByteDance is primarily based on fair business competition and is beneficial in preventing monopolistic behavior in the short video market. In the United States, the company that considers TikTok an important competitor is Facebook. Their competition seems to be filled with hostility. Mark Zuckerberg himself has repeatedly called for the U.S. government to ban TikTok. This is because TikTok and Facebook have highly similar business models, mainly relying on selling information flow advertising for revenue. As more and more users are attracted by TikTok, Facebook's advertising clients are also being taken away by TikTok in large numbers. TikTok directly undermines the foundation of Facebook's advertising business in the United States and has encroached upon Facebook's commercial interests.

This is a typical case of 'seeking administrative intervention when unable to compete in the market.' During the Trump administration, they demanded that ByteDance divest its TikTok business in the U.S. Finally, Microsoft proposed a $30 billion acquisition, intending to acquire TikTok. Under the intervention of the Chinese government and with Trump's reelection failure, the acquisition was forced to be abandoned.