Even the ban talk couldn’t shake TikTok’s grip. ByteDance recently secured a joint venture that keeps the app operating in the US, ending long-running uncertainty that barely slowed its growth. Despite the regulatory hurdles, TikTok ranked as America’s second-most-downloaded Chinese app in 2025. Temu and Shein also kept growing after Trump’s tariff wall and the shutdown of the de minimis loophole.

• TikTok’s US revenue climbed 26.2% year-over-year to $13.9B in 2025 across ads, in-app purchases, and e-commerce, while its user base expanded from 170M to 200M, per Coresight.
• US operations will shift into a new investor-led entity — OracleORCL
  , Silver Lake, and Abu Dhabi’s MGX will each take 15%, with Oracle handling US data storage and algorithm training.

The algorithm edge: TikTok’s staying power comes from what CEO Scott Miller calls a “continuous, attention-economy strategy,” using viral, personalized content to drive demand instead of traditional marketing. Trump even thanked Xi Jinping for “approving the deal,” claiming TikTok helped deliver his second term. As professor Yao Jin puts it, most US consumers don’t care where an app comes from — “as long as they can find something they want at an affordable price.”