Blake Chandlee

TikTok is coming of age in a post-techlash world. But unlike Facebook and Google, it has the added challenge of doubling as a political football in the Trump administration’s clashes with China. Last Friday President Trump told reporters he was considering a ban on the video app, which is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company. Over the weekend Reuters reported the company may be looking to divest from its U.S. operations completely — perhaps in a sale to Microsoft — in order to avoid such a ban.

Despite the extraordinary circumstances of 2020, TikTok has transformed the pop culture landscape in recent months. At its core, the application simply strives to inspire creativity and bring joy to users, said TikTok’s Vice President of Global Business Solutions Blake Chandlee. While this mission has not changed, Chandlee shared that he was personally struck by the shift in content he saw last year.