TOK TALK

As the TikTok saga escalates, the world's hottest app continues to make moves in the U.S. The ByteDance-owned app has launched its biggest ad campaign yet: "It Starts on TikTok," a global campaign featuring top creators and running on social/digital media and linear TV, will begin this week.

The TikTok ads in the U.S. will run on linear TV (including ESPN, TNT, ABC and NBC), digital media (Hulu and Spotify), digital out-of-home and radio (iHeartMedia).

As for the ongoing sale of TikTok, forced by a recently extended executive order from President Trump (now 90 days), outlets have reported that software giant Oracle has been in talks with ByteDance to acquire the app. A longtime rival of Microsoft, Oracle is rumored to be partnering with U.S. investors, including Sequoia Capital.

Billionaire owner Larry Ellison is one of the few Silicon Valley moguls to openly support President Trump. Oracle is valued at roughly $166b, making it one of the few companies with the cash available to acquire TikTok.

Microsoft and Twitter were previously reported to be in the mix as well.

Along with the announcement of a distribution deal with UnitedMasters, TikTok launched a new information hub yesterday, to "address rumors and misinformation about TikTok" and serve as a "source of truth."

TikTok is the daily destination for millions of people to express themselves creatively. We have launched a new information hub to shine a light on the facts, and serve as a source of truth to address the misinformation about TikTok. https://t.co/3dfEibdNsB

— TikTok_Comms (@tiktok_comms) August 17, 2020