Mark Cuban Wanted To Invest In TikTok Before It Was TikTok: 'Oh My God, I Loved It'

Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban attempted to invest in popular video-sharing app TikTok in the early stages before it was ever called TikTok, but the company turned him away.

What Happened: According to a CNBC report citing a recent interview with social media personality Jules Terpak, Cuban once attempted to invest in Musical.ly, the video-sharing app that ultimately became TikTok, because he “loved” using the platform.

"I remember when it was Musical.ly and I tried to invest … Oh my god, I loved it because I could just turn it on and there would be 15,000 people live immediately that I could talk to," Cuban reportedly told Terpak in the interview.

The report indicates that Cuban’s bid for an investment in Musical.ly was unsuccessful because the company didn’t need the money and wasn’t looking to take on any new investors.

Musical.ly ended up being acquired by TikTok parent company Bytedance for around $800 million in 2017. The video-sharing app then merged into TikTok about a year after the acquisition.

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Cuban prefers the older version of the app that focused on music and dancing. Nowadays, TikTok “feels more corporate” and business-focused, especially since the revenue-sharing program launch, Cuban said in the interview.

"I liked it better when it was dances [and] music … Now it's a business," he said.

It’s not clear how much Cuban would have invested in Musical.ly if he were given the opportunity. It’s also not clear exactly how much he would have made from the investment.

Assuming Cuban could have invested at a similar valuation to what Bytedance paid for Musical.ly in 2017 ($800 million), the investment would have appreciated enormously. According to an Economic Times report, TikTok parent company Bytedance valued itself at around $300 billion in a recent buyback offer to investors.

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