Under his proposed plan, the platform would offer payment tiers for users to buy into the platform as “founding members.”

The parent company of TikTok has offered US employees the chance to sell shares they might hold in ByteDance, a privately owned company, which could have a knock-on effect on any eventual sale of the social media app.

President Trump on Thursday suggested he would consider extending the deadline for a ban on TikTok for a second time if a deal isn’t reached, stating there is “a lot of interest”

Frank McCourt announced on Monday that Alexis Ohanian has joined his bid to acquire TikTok's U.S. operations specializing in social media.