“Google in talks with TikTok competitor Firework about possible takeover”

According to sources from The Wall Street Journal, Google is interested in an acquisition of TikTok competitor Firework. An agreement has not yet been reached, according to the sources, nor has it been determined how much would be paid.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Firework is currently valued at about $100 million. The app was founded by former leaders of Snap, LinkedIn and JPMorgan Chase and is a competitor of the fast-growing TikTok. According to the maker itself, that app has had one billion monthly active users since this year. It is not known how many users Firework has, but the site speaks of ‘millions’.

Videos on Firework are up to 30 seconds long, making it feel like a video microblog, similar to TikTok. In addition, Firework has a new feature where rotating the device being viewed rotates the perspective and not the video itself. For example, a video can be viewed in portrait mode as well as in landscape mode.

In addition to Google, Weibo, the Chinese social media giant, is also said to be interested in Firework. Talks with the Chinese company are said to be less advanced than those with Google. However, the sources also do not rule out that Google ultimately does not go for an acquisition, but for a trade relationship.