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In the next chapter of US President Donald Trump’s war on Chinese-owned TikTok, he has joined the social media company’s major rival.
After recently threatening TikTok with banning it from operating within the US by the end of the year, he has joined US-based rival Triller.
Both the US and India fear data collected by TikTok could be given to the Chinese government, with the latter already banning the app.
To avoid being cut out of the US market TikTok has to find an American corporate buyer or it faces being outlawed.
Triller is a similar app to TikTok and allows users to record dances and other content over music.
In President Trump’s first clip, a re-election video, he declares: “I’m a professional at technology.”
This is followed by him saying: “Nobody can do it like me. Nobody.”
Two other videos on the page take aim at his presidential opponent Joe Biden and thank the “boaters for Trump”, his supporters who regularly hold boat parades.
So what is Triller?
The New York-based company was founded in 2015 but has started to gain traction recently due to TikTok’s troubles.
It now features celebrities like Chance the Rapper, Justin Bieber, Rae Sremmurd, Rita Ora and Kevin Hart.
The app has been downloaded more than 250 million times and is at pains to differentiate itself from TikTok.
We see “ourselves as the adult version,” Triller co-owner and Hollywood producer Ryan Kavanaugh told CNBC Make It last week.
“We look at [TikTok] like a stepping stone to Triller,” he says, adding that the app’s content is “a little more risque” and meant for a slightly older crowd.
President Trump’s threat to ban TikTok over privacy concerns mixed with a wave of TikTok stars leaving has meant more than 35 million people downloaded Triller in the past week alone.
Last month President Trump signed an executive order banning US companies from transacting with TikTok’s parent company ByteDance.
Currently, Microsoft is considering buying the company and operating it in the US in a deal expected to be valued at anywhere from $10 billion to $30 billion.
President Trump has said if this falls through, he will ban the popular video-sharing app, But Microsoft has convinced the President a deal would be good for the US.
“We had a great conversation. He called me to see how I felt about it,” Mr Trump said Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella.
“And I said look, it can’t be controlled – for security reasons – by China. Too big, too invasive.
“Here’s the deal. I don’t mind if – whether it’s Microsoft or somebody else – a big company, a secure company, a very American company buy it.”
TikTok has denied allegations that it shares user data with the Chinese government.
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