TikTok may shift headquarters from China to UK

London : Amid ongoing troubles with the operations because of company's headquarters in China, TikTok is discussing with London to possibly shift the headquarters, a source familiar with the matter said. This comes as a move to distance itself from its Chinese ownership.

Currently the talks are in discussion phase and no concrete step has been officially announced.

It is not clear if the company is also considering other locations across the world too. But it has hired aggressively in California this year, including poaching Kevin Mayer, a former Walt Disney Co executive, to be TikTok’s chief executive. He is based in the United States.

The company has been facing tough times with countries banning or planning to ban it due to its data sharing policy with the Chinese authorities.

TikTok is owned by China-based ByteDance.

Recently, the US had announced that they may also announce a ban on Chinese apps and companies like it was announced in India to secure the data privacy.

TikTok is expected to “significantly” increase the size of its workforce in London and other key locations outside of China over the next several years, the source said.

The Sunday Times reported that Tiktok has broken off talks with the UK government to open a global headquarters in Britain. A source said Tiktok was still in discussions with Britain’s government. TikTok declined to comment.