Microsoft's rescue attempt of TikTok endears old company to new generation

Microsoft has emerged as a savior to young users of TikTok, who praised the tech industry giant for trying to buy parts of the social media company's operations, in hopes of avoiding a U.S. shutdown.

Bearing hashtags like #SaveTikTok and #Microsoft, which have attracted nearly 1 billion views combined, TikTok'ers - an overwhelmingly young group that uses the app to create short dance, lip-sync, comedy and talent videos - embraced a company founded by people their grandparent's age and whose former chief executive's pre-internet-era onstage outbursts and profuse sweating are now a YouTube meme.

Microsoft has largely abandoned its historic practice of tying all of its products back to its Windows operating system or other properties. Minecraft apps have no obvious connection to Microsoft. Its sales have quadrupled over the six years since it was acquired and it now reaches 126 million monthly users. JT Casey, a TikTok user with 2.8 million followers, said he was initially worried about the idea of Microsoft's ownership, but concluded there is a potential change that could benefit video creators.

"I kinda started realizing that I'm sure Microsoft would want to figure out a way to monetize TikTok better, which would eventually lead into creators making more money as well as Microsoft. I guess after thinking about it for a day or so I would not be opposed to Microsoft buying it, seeing what they do with it. They are a very big company and would invest a lot of money into it," Casey said. Content creators are already looking at their options through other social media platforms while they wait and see what happens to TikTok.

"We were talking about 'oh look, Microsoft looks to buy it' and they were like 'Oh it's fake, don't believe that'. What's going through their heads is honestly like, where the next app is going to be. That's what I'm hearing, people are talking about people going to Triller, people are going to Byte, because the short video is never going to go anywhere, it's just a matter of is TikTok going anywhere," said Dimitri Robinson, a TikToker with 270,000 followers.