TikTok building new version of mobile app ahead of expected US sale: Report
Reuters
TikTok is building a new version of its app for users in the United States ahead of a planned sale of the app to a group of investors, The Information reported on Sunday, citing unnamed sources.
This comes as US President Donald Trump said on Friday he will start talking to China on Monday or Tuesday about a possible TikTok deal.
He said the United States "pretty much" has a deal on the sale of the TikTok short-video app.
TikTok has developed a plan to launch the new app to US app stores on September 5, the report said.
The report added that TikTok users will eventually have to download the new app to be able to continue using the service, although the existing app will work until March of next year, though the timeline could change.
TikTok did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Reuters could not immediately confirm the report.
A deal had been in the works earlier this year to spin off TikTok's U.S. operations into a new U.S.-based firm, majority-owned and operated by U.S. investors. That was put on hold after China indicated it would not approve it following Trump's announcements of steep tariffs on Chinese goods.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Mint
an hour ago
- Mint
Mukesh Ambani bets big on US gas as Trump's trade war reshapes global energy, all you need to know
Mukesh Ambani, Asia's richest man, is racing to buy American ethane gas as a shield against President Trump's trade war. His company Reliance Industries imports 1.6 million tonnes yearly from US shale fields, shipped in giant tankers to Gujarat factories. This cheap gas replaces costlier oil-based naphtha for making plastics, saving $450 million annually. With Trump threatening 26% 'reciprocal tariffs' on Indian goods by July 9, Ambani's bet positions India as a key buyer of US energy, potentially easing tensions over India's $43 billion trade surplus with America. His fleet of six specialized ethane tankers now anchors this strategy, according to a Bloomberg report. India's state-run GAIL is also trying to replicate Ambani's tactics to stay ahead in the race. It just sought 20-year contracts for US ethane tankers after government policies slashed its natural gas supply, hurting profits. Like Reliance, GAIL will pipe ethane to its chemical plants to replace naphtha. The shift is urgent: Ethane costs half as much as naphtha and produces more plastic per tonne. Even Qatar now charges extra for ethane in gas sold to India, forcing firms like GAIL to seek US alternatives. Analysts call this a 'permanent shift' as shale gas floods global markets. Trump's trade wars make Ambani's move timely. China once bought most US ethane, but Trump's tariffs and 'decoupling' push have stalled deals. India now grabs this surplus, though it can't match China's Apple's plan to make iPhones in India faces Trump's wrath over 'massive tariffs,' showing New Delhi's precarious position. By boosting US energy purchases, India hopes to avoid auto and textile tariffs. Reliance's pipeline network and new ships strengthen its role as a 'pressure valve' in US-India trade talks. The Ambani-Trump connection runs deep. Ivanka attended Ambani's son's $600 million wedding, while Trump hosted the family at his pre-inauguration gala. Now, their interests align commercially: Trump needs foreign buyers for US shale gas, while Ambani seeks cheap raw materials. As Reliance orders three more ethane tankers, experts warn India's oil refineries may become obsolete.


Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Biryani Day: Dish now most-ordered, replaces Chinese as Kolkata's fave
Kolkata: While the city experienced its first tryst with it 170 years ago, Kolkata's love affair with biryani has taken off and blossomed post-pandemic, with the volume of orders across restaurants and online trebling since 2022. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Even as the city celebrated World Biryani Day on Sunday, biryani sales soared past its Continental and Chinese competition by a fair margin at several restaurants. The aromatic rice and meat blend has now overtaken Chinese food as the most preferred dish if online orders are included, according to restaurant owners in Kolkata. Multiple restaurants marked the day with special offers on biryani. Flame & Grill, for instance, is offering a free biryani with every chicken and egg biryani ordered till July 8. "We have seen a significant rise in biryani sales over the last three years that reflects a change in taste," said Anjan Chatterjee, founder and MD of Specialty Restaurants that owns several outlets selling biryani, including Flame & Grill and Riyasat. It is the introduction of various kinds of biryani that catapulted the dish to the top of popularity charts and challenged chilli chicken and chowmein, said Shiladitya Choudhury, co-founder and owner of Oudh 1590. The restaurant saw sales soar by a whopping 25% in May when it held a month-long biryani festival. "Chinese has traditionally been the most ordered across restaurants, but it has been replaced by biryani in the last five years. We have played a part by introducing Awadhi handi, raan, mahi, moti, and palak biryanis after research in Lucknow. Till a decade ago, only the traditional Kolkata biryani was available here, and it had a limited appeal. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now We introduced galauti kebab, jhinga (prawn) kebab, kakori kebab, and murgh Irani that have enhanced the appeal of biryani. Previously, you had only boti kebabs, chaanp, and tandoori to go with biryani, which failed to tickle taste buds," said Chaudhury. Oudh sold 1 million biryanis in Kolkata in the last year. According to an online food delivery service, 83 million biryanis were ordered in 2024 across India, which translates to 158 orders per minute. It has been the most ordered dish on the app for the last nine years. Other than being a meal in itself, biryani doesn't vary in taste from one joint to another as much as Chinese, according to Sudesh Poddar, president of the Hotel and Restaurants' Association of Eastern India. "Easy availability and the fact that it is a rice-based dish has led Kolkatans to fall for it in a big way. At my restaurant, sales have trebled in the last five years," said Poddar, also the owner of Songhai and Manthan. Aminia, one of the oldest Mughlai chains in the city, now sells 3,500 plates of biryani a day across its 14 Kolkata outlets. "Biryani has gained popularity in a big way, thanks to a couple of shops in the outskirts that took to the suburbs. In the city, you have street-corner shops that have turned biryani into street food. Our sales have doubled in the last five years," said Kabir Azhar of Aminia. He felt more outlets and the special taste of Kolkata biryani have led to this spurt in popularity. It's a mix of carb and meat that makes biryani a complete food, said Chaudhury. "Also, it has a pan-India presence with each region having its own biryani genre. From Nizami, Awadhi, and Kolkata to Malabari and Thalakapatty, biryani has a wide variety," he added.


Economic Times
2 hours ago
- Economic Times
The coder 'village' at heart of China's latest AI frenzy
Synopsis Hangzhou, a suburb of China, is emerging as a prominent AI hub, attracting entrepreneurs and tech talent with government support and proximity to tech giants like Alibaba and DeepSeek. Fueled by AI fever, the city fosters startups and innovation, with DeepSeek's cost-effective AI system shaking the tech world. Agencies The Coder 'Village' at Heart of China's Latest AI Frenzy Hangzhou: It was a sunny Saturday afternoon, and dozens of people sat in the grass around a backyard stage where aspiring founders of tech startups talked about their ideas. People in the crowd slouched over laptops, vaping and drinking strawberry Frappuccinos. A drone buzzed overhead. Inside the house, investors took pitches in the kitchen. It looked like Silicon Valley, but it was Liangzhu, a quiet suburb of the southern Chinese city of Hangzhou, which is a hot spot for entrepreneurs and tech talent lured by low rents and proximity to tech companies like Alibaba and DeepSeek. "People come here to explore their own possibilities," said Felix Tao, 36, a former Facebook and Alibaba employee who hosted the all of those possibilities involve artificial intelligence. As China faces off with the United States over tech primacy, Hangzhou has become the center of China's AI frenzy. A decade ago, the provincial and local governments started offering subsidies and tax breaks to new companies in Hangzhou, a policy that has helped incubate hundreds of startups. On weekends, people fly in from Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen to hire many of them have ended up in Tao's backyard. He helped found an AI research lab at Alibaba before leaving to start his own company, Mindverse, in 2022. Now Tao's home is a hub for coders who have settled in Liangzhu, many in their 20s and 30s. They call themselves "villagers," writing code in coffee shops during the day and gaming together at night, hoping to harness AI to create their own companies. Hangzhou has already birthed tech powerhouses, not only Alibaba and DeepSeek but also NetEase and Hikvision. In January, DeepSeek shook the tech world when it released an AI system that it said it had made for a small fraction of the cost that Silicon Valley companies had spent on their own. Since then, systems made by DeepSeek and Alibaba have ranked among the top-performing open source AI models in the world, meaning they are available for anyone to build on. Graduates from Hangzhou's Zhejiang University, where DeepSeek's founder studied, have become sought-after employees at Chinese tech media closely followed the poaching of a core member of DeepSeek's team by the electronics company Xiaomi. In Liangzhu, many engineers said they were killing time until they could create their own startups, waiting out noncompete agreements they had signed at bigger companies like ByteDance. DeepSeek is one of six AI and robotics startups from the city that Chinese media calls the "six tigers of Hangzhou."