Is TikTok available on the App Store? iPhones with the streaming platform installed are being sold for up to $50K on eBay

After joining office as the 47th President of the US, one of the executive orders Donald Trump signed was for the extension of the deadline of the TikTok ban law to 75 days. However, despite the order, the app was still unavailable to download on Apple and Google's app stores as of Wednesday, January 22, USA Today reported.

In light of app's unavailability, many iPhone users are selling their smartphones with it installed at exorbitant prices online on eBay.

A tweet uploaded on X on Wednesday shared a picture of different pre-owned iPhone models with the app installed, selling at $10,000 and $50,000, with the caption reading:

"iPhones with TikTok installed are being sold for up to $50,000 on eBay, as the app is no longer available on the App Store"

The tweet has since gone viral, receiving over 3.5 million views, 31K likes, and 2K retweets as of this writing. Netizens have reacted to it, with some of them commenting:

"Imagine spending between 10k to 50k just to see Tiktoks" - commented an X user.

"no one would pay that price unless they’re a creator making that a month. It’s super easy to make 50k a month on tiktok if you’re not a retard" - replied another one.

"Remember when people were buying phones with Angry Bird installed?" - added a third one.

---

TikTok was shut down for 12 hours on Saturday

Before Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 47th President of the country on Monday, January 20, the app's ban law was to come into effect from Sunday, January 19.

The ban stemmed from a law proposed by Joe Biden, which required the app's Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell its US assets to a national company in order to continue operating in the US. A failure to meet its sale deadline would ban the app in the country.

On Saturday, January 18, the company executives of the platform made the decision to shut their app down entirely, which lasted for about 12 hours, as reported by USA Today on January 22. On Sunday, the app welcomes users back with a message thanking Trump for its return.

While the users who already have the app installed on their smartphones can still use it seamlessly in the US, new users can't download it on the app store. Per the news outlet, when Android users search for the app on Google Play Store, they find an unclickable icon on the app's log, with a query: "Looking for TikTok?"

It is followed by a message underneath, reading:

"Downloads for this app are paused due to current U.S. legal requirements."

On the other hand, iPhone users find this message when they search for the app on the App Store:

"TikTok and other ByteDance apps are not available in the country or region you're in."

---

The search for a buyer of TikTok is ongoing

Per a Reuters article (published January 22), as the Chinese platform has resumed its services in the US, the app can't be installed on new devices at the moment, which has been paused as Apple and Google possibly await additional protection to bypass the ban to avoid trouble.

According to the media outlet, Trump said on Tuesday that he was open to his supporter, Elon Musk, buying the app if the entrepreneur wanted to. This would be the second time the Tesla CEO has purchased a social media platform, after Twitter in 2022.

Meanwhile, John Moolenaar - the chair of the House Select Committee in China - recently met with businessmen Frank McCourt and Kevin O'Leary about the potential divestiture of the app, as per various reports.

---

Per Reuters, over 200 iPhones and Android devices with TikTok have been listed for sale on eBay as of Tuesday, January 21 night.