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TikTok to Launch $500 Million Data Center in Ireland

August 6, 2020 9:25 am

BEIJING (PingWest) — TikTok, ByteDance’s flagship short video app at the center of U.S.-China tensions, is launching its first data center in Europe with a $500 million investment in Ireland, according to Bloomberg, citing the company's announcement.

the new data center is expected to start operations by early 2021, with the promise to create hundreds of jobs, improvement of “the safeguarding and protection of TikTok user data” and shorten loading times for users in Europe.

Once the center starts operations, videos, messages and other data generated by European users from the short video platform will be stored at that location. All of TikTok users' records were stored in the US, with a back-up copy held in Singapore until currently.

TikTok’s parent company ByteDance, the most valuable unicorn in the world, has putting up its efforts to distance its domestic Chinese operations from TikTok in order to appease overseas regulators. The Trump administration accused the company of collecting American user data and potentially providing the Chinese government with access to user data, thus creating a national security risk. The company is currently facing a six-week deadline to reach a deal with Microsoft Corp. or another American company for the sale of its U.S. operations.