A Chinese-based social video platform will open up operations in Austin, according to recent reports.
The social media platform TikTok has leased office space in the downtown portion of the city.
“TikTok is not a stranger to Austin,” Build Austin reported. “The social media giant opened a local office in March of 2020.”
Austin Business Journal reported that the company has chosen to lease the top six floors for a total of 126,000 square feet at a 32-story office tower at 300 Colorado St.
The tower commenced construction last year and at the time President Donald Trump urged the social media giant to bring an office to the city over privacy concerns, according to the Austin Business Journal.
The news organization reported that Blake Chandlee, the company’s president of global business, along with a number of executives already work out of the city.
Build Austin reported that the company said they would hire hundreds of employees as its new office space will be utilized for its advertising and global brand endeavors.
TikTok created an American-based entity TikTok Global to appease Trump’s concerns about the company with Walmart and Oracle having minority ownership in the business, according to Build Austin.
The Austin-based organization reported that Trump had previously said that the agreement calls for the company to employ 25,000 people throughout the country with a $5 billion donation toward a Texas-based educational fund.
ByteDance Ltd. owns TikTok, which currently has 96 job listings posted on the internet for employment in the Austin area, according to Austin Business Journal.
“It is the latest tech company to eat up a chunk of Austin's skyline,” the news organization reported. “California-based Meta Platforms Inc., the parent company of Facebook, in late December leased all 33 floors of office space at under-construction Sixth and Guadalupe (several months after walking away from possible deal at 300 Colorado).”