The countdown is on again for a US-based buyer to take on TikTok, as it faces a ban. Euronews Next takes a look at the contenders to take over the app. View on euronews

Reports about Chinese officials eyeing Musk as the buyer of TikTok’s U.S. operations are “not a total shock” given Musk’s relationship with Trump, says Wedbush analyst Dan Ives.

Content creator Jimmy Donaldson, known on the Internet as MrBeast, has made it clear he is interested in buying TikTok. Donaldson has the most subscribers of any user on YouTube— over 340 million—and boasts over 113 million TikTok followers.

"Shark Tank" investor Kevin O'Leary has said that he, in collaboration with former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, would be interested in purchasing the app.YouTuber MrBeast also said in an X post on January 13,

ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, is required to sell the app to a U.S.-based buyer or face a nationwide ban.

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he would be supportive of the world's richest man and his close aide, Elon Musk, buying TikTok "if he wanted to". Trump was asked if he would be open to the billionaire founder of Tesla buying the short-video platform facing a nationwide ban in the US after the Supreme Court last week upheld a law requiring TikTok to sever ties with its Chinese parent ByteDance.

United States President Donald Trump on Monday told reporters that Microsoft is in talks to acquire the video-sharing platform TikTok and that he would like to see a bidding war over the app.Microsoft denied to comment on this,