Madrid has become this weekend the stage of one of the most sensitive negotiations for the immediate future of Tiktok. The application of Chinese origin has been included as a central theme in the official agenda of commercial conversations between Delegations of the United States and China, led by the US Secretary of the North American Treasury, Scott Besent, and the Vice Primer Chinese Minister, He Lifeng.

The meetings – which began on Sunday, September 14 at the Palacio de Santa Cruz, headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Spain – mark the fourth round of meetings in less than four months between both powers, which have already met in Geneva, London and Stockholm. However, this is the first time that Tiktok’s future is publicly raised as a formal negotiation point. The reason: the legal deadline imposed by the Trump administration for Bytedance, the Chinese Tiktok matrix, sells its operations in the United States expired on September 17.

One more extension

The announcement of a fourth extension of the term could be expected, thus avoiding a forced Tiktok closure in US territory. But at noon on Monday Donald Trump has advanced, through his social truth network, that a commercial principle with China has been reached. “The great commercial meeting in Europe between the United States and China has gone very well“The President said.”An agreement was also reached a company that the young people in our country wanted to save”, He said in allusion to Tiktok.

For his part, Scott Besent, secretary of the US Treasury, has confirmed in the Spanish capital the principle of agreement to separate Tiktok from Bytedance, a pact that Trump and XI must close on Friday. No more details have been shared about the treatment to separate both companies and that the social network continues to operate under American property.

Although Amazon has been mentioned among possible buyers, there is no official confirmation and its profile generates regulatory doubts. The e-commerce giant might be interested in Tiktok for its potential as a social commerce channel and digital advertising, but its acquisition history and antitrust pressure in the United States complicate any movement. In addition, its entry into the social networks business would represent a strategic change of great draft.

Among the most viable buyers are Microsoft – who already tried to acquire Tiktok in 2020 – and Oracle, who became a technological partner of the platform that same year. The possibility of a consortium of investment funds, such as KKR, Silver Lake or General Atlantic, is also contemplated with the support of a technological partner to overcome regulatory misgivings. Google goal, despite their capacity, they would be practically discarded for antitrust reasons.

According to analysts such as William Reinsch, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the meetings that are being carried out between China and the United States do not seek both a definitive resolution and establish conditions for a future summit between Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, where substantial agreements on Tiktok, technological exports, agriculture or agriculture of fentanyl.

That the debate on Tiktok takes place in Madrid is due to the fact that the Spanish capital works as a neutral terrain for dialogues marked by mutual distrust, 55% tariffs imposed by the United States and the growing pressure on China for its energy links with Russia. In parallel, the American administration is promoting that the G7 adopt rates on imports from China and India, in response to its purchases of Russian oil.

In this environment of commercial and technological tensions, the “Tiktok case” has become a symbol of the new digital order in dispute. The application, with more than 150 million active users only in the United States, represents both a perceived threat to national security and an active of very high economic and cultural value. Despite the principle of agreement, the disinvestment by Bytedance will face technical, legal and diplomatic challenges of great complexity.