TikTok: Oracle confirms being picked by Bytedance to be app's partner

US tech firm Oracle has confirmed that TikTok's owner has formally proposed it become a "trusted technology partner" to the video-sharing app. The aim is to avoid President Trump's threat to shut down the Chinese-owned service in the US.

Oracle is a database specialist without experience of running a social media app targeted at the general public.

Oracle's chairman, the billionaire Larry Ellison, is a supporter of Trump and in February held a fundraiser at his California home to aid the Republican leader's re-election campaign.

March 2012: Bytedance is established in China and launches Neihan Duanzi - an app to help Chinese users share memes

September 2016: Bytedance launches the short-form video app Douyin in China

August 2017: An international version of Douyin is launched under the brand TikTok in some parts of the world, but not the US at this time

November 2017: Bytedance buys lip-synch music app Musical.ly

May 2018: TikTok declared world's most downloaded non-game iOS app over first three months of the year, by market research firm Sensor Tower

August 2018: Bytedance announces it is shutting down Musical.ly and is moving users over to TikTok

February 2019: TikTok fined in US over Musical.ly's handling of under-13s' data

October 2019: Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg publicly criticises TikTok, accusing it of censoring protests

November 2019: The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (Cfius) opens national security investigation into TikTok

May 2020: TikTok hires Disney executive Kevin Meyer to become the division's chief executive and chief operating officer of Bytedance

June 2020: India bans TikTok among dozens of other Chinese apps

July 2020: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and then President Trump, say TikTok might be banned

August 2020: Microsoft and Oracle make rival approaches to acquire or otherwise operate TikTok in the US and three other markets. Mr Meyer announces he is leaving the company because the "political environment has sharply changed"

September 2020: TikTok says it has more than 100 million active users in Europe. It recently said it had a similar number in the US, and has been estimated to have more than 800 million engaged members worldwide

according to the BBC