Moving to Europe under "Deep" Hunting: New Opportunities and Old Challenges for TikTok

Reporter | Wang Qing Editor | Cui Yu has more and more signs that after the Indian and American markets have been blocked, TikTok is preparing to turn the main battlefield to Europe.
The latest example is that TikTok announced on August 5 that it would invest 420 million euros to build a new data center in Ireland.
Last week's news was that Byte Beat had planned to set TikTok's global headquarters in London, UK.
Different from the pursuit and interception of President Trump of the United States, European political circles are open to Tiktok: French President Makron released his first TikTok video at the beginning of July to congratulate French students who have just completed the exam.
Recently, in response to the news that TikTok's global headquarters moved to London, the UK Department of International Trade said to the interface news that "the UK will be a fair and open market for those investments that support UK growth and employment".
Martin Shanahan, CEO of the Irish Investment Development Agency, said that TikTok's decision to establish a data center in Ireland was "very popular".
There is no artificial barrier against TikTok in the European market, and there is no local technology giant with comparable strength in Europe to compete with it.
However, when moving to the region with the strictest digital regulation in the world, TikTok is still facing old challenges while welcoming new opportunities in Europe.
"All the interesting students in the class are using TikTok." Lisa (a pseudonym), a 16-year-old Dutch girl, told the interface news.
She went to school in a high school in Utrecht, the central Netherlands.
Since the epidemic, she has stopped classes at home and spent at least two hours on TikTok every day.
She doesn't use Facebook because "that's what parents use" and "TikTok is the territory of young people".
On TikTok, she pays attention to some famous fashion bloggers, occasionally takes a dance video, and "see what students are doing".
At the beginning of August, when the news of the plan to locate the global headquarters in London came, TikTok was experiencing the biggest crisis since its establishment.
India and the United States have encountered obstacles successively, while the European market has been relatively calm.
In fact, TikTok has been acting continuously in the European market in the past two years, and there are early signs of expansion.
TikTok's European tour set sail in London.
In August 2018, TikTok's UK team was officially established.
In the bustling Holborn District in central London, they set up a WeWork building as an office and started to enter the European market from this point.
Zhang Yiming has considered setting up a headquarters for TikTok overseas since the end of 2019.
The candidate cities include London, Singapore and Dublin.
People close to byte beating executives have told the media earlier that the headquarters will probably be located in London.
According to the Irish Times, TikTok has more than 1000 employees in Europe, 800 of whom work in Britain and Ireland, and have offices in Paris, Berlin, Brussels and other important European cities.
When Ireland's data center starts to operate, hundreds more will be added