The company behind the video app TikTok is in talks with the British government to establish its headquarters in London.
An insider reports this to news agency Reuters. With the move, TikTok wants to counter the criticism that the app has too close ties with the Chinese government.
London is one of the business sites under consideration, the source said.
The Sunday Times reports that talks with the British government have already broken off, but insiders say the negotiations are still ongoing.
It is not known which other cities TikTok is looking at. Dublin and Singapore were mentioned earlier. At the moment, TikTok does not have its own headquarters.
TikTok has recently gained popularity because many people were locked up with their smartphones at home.
In the first quarter, 315 million users downloaded the app, a record number in a quarter. 2.2 billion people are already users of TikTok.
