TikTok announces US$500m data center in Ireland

TikTok announced on Thursday that it would invest 420 million euros (US$499 million) to establish a new European data center in Ireland, expanding European operations amid uncertainty and threats in the United States.

US President Donald Trump said on Monday he was prepared to approve a deal selling TikTok assets to Microsoft or another US company, after warning of a national security ban.

The center in Ireland, the company’s first data center in Europe, would create “hundreds of new jobs,” the company said in a statement.

ByteDance, the parent firm of TikTok, is considering moving TikTok’s headquarters outside of the US, it said on Tuesday. 

London has been tipped as one option for TikTok as the social-media app looks to broaden its international reach. The city is already the regional base of ByteDance's operations in Europe, and about 800 of the company's 1,000-strong European workforce is in the UK and Ireland, according to media reports. 

China firmly opposes blatant US bullying of certain non-US enterprises in violation of market economy rules and the WTO principles of openness, transparency and non-discrimination, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson said.

Spokesman Wang Wenbin made the remarks at a press briefing on Tuesday while commenting on the US announcement that TikTok, a Chinese video-sharing app, will be out of business in the United States if it is not sold to a US company before September 15.