Oracle partnering TikTok in US won't affect India ban instantly: Experts

They feel India will still want a local partner-based strategy in which data centres are placed locally within the country

With reports of technology company Oracle beating Microsoft to emerge as the winning bidder for TikTok’s US operations, stakeholders and experts in India say the deal will not have any immediate implications in the country.

According to a Wall Street Journal report, Oracle is set to be announced as TikTok’s trusted tech partner in the US, a development which was later denied by China's state-run English television channel CGTN, citing sources.

“If Oracle becomes a technology partner for TikTok in the US, there will be no direct India implications where we stand as of now. Once this relationship is stable, the next steps will be taken. And India will still want a local partner-based strategy in which the data centres are placed locally here,” said Sanchit Vir Gogia, Founder & CEO, Greyhound Research.

Oracle, which has over 15,000 clients in India, already has two data centres in the country. In fact, its second data centre was unveiled in Hyderabad in June only a year after it rolled out the first one in Mumbai last year. “Oracle is a big partner and if they take over, they will be steering clear of any data privacy issue and will not have any problem setting up a data centre in India. They have the capability to set up such capacities in the country,” said Sanjeev Kumar, forecast analyst at Forrester Research India. 

The Oracle-TikTok deal would be an interesting one as the company is not in the consumer segment at all and if it happens, they might begin with a digital marketing foray which will be a completely new channel for the US-based company, Kumar added.

Legal expert Salman Waris said if the Oracle-TikTok deal is sealed, they could make presentations with the Indian government and convince them about data security issues. The due-diligence could take over 6 months, he said.

India was the biggest market for TikTok after China before it was banned in the country in June. The Bytedance owned short video app had over 200 million users in the country. According to a Sensor Tower report, The TikTok app has been installed about two billion times globally, of which India accounted for over 600 million downloads.

Microsoft, was earlier in talks with Beijing-based tech firm ByteDance to buy TikTok’s businesses in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It however has confirmed that its bid has been rejected by TikTok owner ByteDance.

“We are confident our proposal would have been good for TikTok’s users, while protecting national security interests. To do this, we would have made significant changes to ensure the service met the highest standards for security, privacy, online safety, and combatting disinformation, and we made these principles clear in our August statement. We look forward to seeing how the service evolves in these important areas,” said the company in a statement.