TikTok courts Instagram founder Kevin Systrom to run US spin-off, report claims

TikTok is courting Instagram founder and former boss Kevin Systrom to lead a new American spin-off company that could go public as early as next year, according to reports.

Sources told the New York Times that TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, is in talks with the 36-year-old billionaire to recruit him as chief executive of the new venture.

That job would pit him directly against his own creation, which he sold to Facebook in 2012 and which has since become TikTok’s biggest rival in a vicious battle for the hearts and minds of teenagers across the world.

Mr Systrom led Instagram until 2018, when he famously quit after losing his patience with Facebook’s relentless pressure to integrate Instagram more deeply with Facebook’s main service and to collect more private data from its users.

On Thursday Reuters reported that ByteDance was preparing to relinquish control of TikTok to American investors after agreeing to last-minute demands from the US government.

The new company will reportedly be called TikTok Global and could float on a US exchange as soon as one year from now, with Oracle both operating its infrastructure and taking a large stake.

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It is not clear whether the company will include all of TikTok’s operations across the world or just those in the US or North America. ByteDance and Oracle did not respond to requests for comment.

Splits remain in Washington DC over what kind of deal should be approved, with any deal requiring approval by President Donald Trump as well as Chinese officials, who have insisted that ByteDance must not submit to a "forced sale". 

According to Reuters, ByteDance reached an agreement with the US Treasury on Wednesday night to create the new company with an American chief executive, a majority of American directors and a board member with security expertise.

Oracle will take a 20pc stake, and Walmart an unknown stake, joining TikTok’s existing American investors such as Sequoia Capital and General Atlantic to give US shareholders an overall majority.

The reported deal appears oddly similar to the plan that ByteDance had originally been discussing with investors this summer before Mr Trump intervened in July with an executive order.