March 23, 2025 — San Francisco, CA – As the deadline looms for TikTok’s divestment from Chinese parent company ByteDance, a surprising name has thrown its hat into the ring: artificial intelligence startup Perplexity.
In a freshly published statement, the San Francisco-based company revealed its ambitious plan to acquire the massively popular short-form video platform — not merely as a business move, but as a transformative leap in how people search, discover, and engage with content online.
Rather than simply absorbing TikTok into its operations, Perplexity envisions a complete reimagination of the platform. By combining TikTok’s viral video reach with its own AI-powered answer engine, Perplexity aims to create what it calls “the world’s most intelligent discovery system” — one that learns in real-time and empowers users to verify what they see, while surfacing answers instead of endless scrolling.
“We don’t just want TikTok. We want to reinvent how people interact with the internet,” Perplexity said in the statement.
The announcement comes amid ongoing uncertainty about TikTok’s future in the U.S. after a national security law gave ByteDance a strict deadline to sell or face a nationwide ban. The concern: that the Chinese government could potentially use the app to monitor American users or subtly influence public discourse. Former President Donald Trump, back in office, recently disclosed that four parties were under consideration as buyers, without naming names.
Perplexity is now openly vying to be one of them, arguing it offers a unique advantage: “Little Tech” independence, free from Big Tech monopolies or government influence — foreign or domestic. It believes this makes it a safer steward for TikTok’s future and a more innovative one.
While tech giants like Microsoft and Oracle are also reportedly exploring bids, and an independent initiative led by billionaire Frank McCourt is lobbying for public ownership of TikTok through “The People’s Bid,” Perplexity sets itself apart with its technical proposal.
If successful, the company says it will relocate TikTok’s infrastructure entirely to U.S. soil, rebuild the app’s algorithm from scratch, and — in a radical move — make the recommendation engine open-source. This would allow developers and watchdogs alike to inspect and understand how content is served, a potential first for any major social platform.
The startup also plans to embed cross-referencing tools directly into TikTok’s interface, giving users the ability to fact-check claims within videos as they watch them — a sharp contrast to current models that often rely on passive consumption and opaque moderation.
Though still in early talks and far from closing a deal, Perplexity’s bold pitch signals a growing shift in tech culture — one where younger, nimble companies are not only challenging the establishment, but also offering a new playbook: one rooted in transparency, utility, and user empowerment.
Whether regulators and ByteDance are willing to take that gamble remains to be seen. But one thing’s certain: Perplexity has made the conversation a lot more interesting.
