A few months ago, everyone was paying attention to the TikTok saga. The app had been exploding in popularity especially during the pandemic and among young people. It's quickly become the next major social media platform and has posted impressive metrics in terms of revenue growth, user growth, and time spent on the platform.

However, the app has also been quite controversial especially in terms of its ties to China. Many believe it's unusually intrusive in terms of mining user data and there are concerns about its parent company's ties to the Chinese government. As a result, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that essentially forced ByteDance to divest Tiktok. There were many bids but the winner was a joint bid by Walmart (WMT  ) and Oracle (ORCL  ).

Latest Tiktok News

However, following this news, there's been little progress in terms of finalizing the deal. The U.S. government has refused to extend the deadline but also is not enforcing the executive order which puts all parties in some sort of limbo especially as ByteDance never wanted to sell TikTok. Some believe that the company may be trying to run out the clock and hoping for a change with a new administration.

The major hangup is that the deal needs to be approved by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which approves foreign investment deals for national security implications. CFIUS said it's still in the process of assessing and resolving national security risks from the tie-up.

Walmart Brings LiveStream Shopping to TikTok

Most expect that the deal will be completed before January 20. However, there have been few updates about progress other than vague comments. Yet, maybe the most tangible sign that Oracle and Walmart will close the deal was a recent live-shopping event on TikTok for Walmart products.

Walmart is betting its future on ecommerce and is furiously fighting to gain ground on Amazon (AMZN  ). Live-shopping is popular in many Asian countries, and it's a way for creators to monetize their audience. Around the time of the deal, Walmart CEO Doug McMillion said he envisioned that eventually, users could buy any item shown on a TikTok video by clicking on it, and it would be fulfilled by Walmart.

For Walmart, the TikTok deal is potentially a major move, especially at the current price point. It would be able to gain a massive audience to advertise its products and give creates on the platform more means to earn an income by promoting or placing various items in their videos.