Individuals are itemizing telephones preloaded with TikTok for tens of hundreds of {dollars} on eBay, Fb market and different on-line storefronts — although it’s not clear if there are various consumers at these costs.
TikTok was briefly unavailable to U.S. customers over the weekend, however as of Sunday anybody who had beforehand downloaded it has been ready to make use of it. The app continues to be not out there for obtain on Apple and Google’s app shops, so anybody who didn’t suppose to get TikTok earlier than Sunday is out of luck.
In consequence, some entrepreneurial spirits are promoting telephones and tablets which have TikTok — and different apps from its father or mother firm ByteDance, akin to Lemon8 and video editor CapCut. On eBay, listings might be discovered for as a lot as $50,000 (or as little as $340) on Friday. Whereas it’s not clear what number of such telephones have bought, those promoting for tons of have obtained probably the most bids.
One vendor, Nicholas Matthews, who lives in New York, mentioned he determined to promote the telephone when he noticed that TikTok was in excessive demand. He listed an iPhone 14 Plus with TikTok for $10,000. As of Friday, Matthews mentioned his highest bid was for $4,550.
“I’m just expecting to sell this one phone,” he mentioned.
TikTok has about 170 million customers within the U.S. The ban doesn’t goal particular person customers, who’re technically free to make use of it so long as they might.
Ebay didn’t instantly reply to a message for touch upon the listings on Friday.
Earlier this week, President Donald Trump directed his Justice Division to pause enforcement of the ban till early April. However a number of questions stay — together with whether or not Trump has the authority to problem such an order and if TikTok’s China-based father or mother can be amenable to promoting the favored social media platform.