ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, would rather shut down the app in the US than sell it. The algorithms TikTok relies on are essential to ByteDance's overall operations, making a sale of the app with algorithms highly unlikely. TikTok operates at a loss, accounting for a small portion of ByteDance's total revenues and daily active users. The parent company would prefer to shut down the app in the US in a worst-case scenario rather than sell it to a potential American buyer.