- TikTok, the fast-growing mobile video app, pledged a donation of $250 million to worldwide coronavirus relief efforts Thursday.
TikTok, the fast-growing mobile video app, pledged a donation of $250 million to worldwide coronavirus relief efforts Thursday.
TikTok follows similar announcements of dontation from technology firms including Google, Facebook, and Netflix as well as from leaders of Microsoft, Amazon, and Twitter.
“We’re committed to playing our part in this global outpouring of mutual support and sharing,” said Alex Zhu, president of TikTok in a tweet.
There are three different funds in the $250 million: the TikTok Health Heroes Relief Fund, the TikTok Group Relief Fund, and the TikTok Innovative Learning Fund.
The first is the most important initiative, as it offers $150 million in support to healthcare personnel for issues like medical services, equipment, and relief of hardship. The CDC Foundation provides $15 million in these grants to help surge resources for local response efforts by state and local governments and $10 million for the WHO COVID-19 Solidarity Response Project.
TikTok, owned by Chinese internet giant ByteDance, also said its employee matching system would assist organizations such as the Red Cross and Immediate Relief.
“We understand these are hard times for all,” the president of TikTok, Alex Zhu, wrote in a statement. “We are committed to delivering the very best we can to support humanity, alongside corporations, governments, NGOs and ordinary people across the globe who are stepping up in this crucial moment.
TikTok also said that it is partnering with global and local partners to supply masks and other personal protection equipment, among others, to hospitals in India, Indonesia, Italy, South Korea, and the U.S. For example, TikTok announced earlier this month that it had donated 400,000 hazmat medical protective suits and 200,000 masks in India to protect doctors and frontline medical workers.
Meanwhile, the TikTok Community Relief Fund especially focuses on vulnerable communities impacted by COVID-19.
This project includes allocating $40 million in cash to local organizations representing TikTok’s consumer group representatives — including musicians, artists, nurses, educators, and families. The fund has also been used to contribute $3 million to All-Stars After School, which offers food for families who had previously relied on school lunches and $2 million to MusiCares, which helps musicians, songwriters and music professionals whose livelihoods have been disrupted.
TikTok would also match $10 million in contributions from its members, as part of the Humanitarian Relief Project.
The third initiative, the Creative Learning Fund of TikTok, will include grants of $50 million to students, technical experts, and groups focused on distance learning projects. TikTok sees itself as a possible home for innovative remote learning activities but no concrete plans have been revealed on this issue.
TikTok provides ad credits to health-care agencies and SMBs outside of the funds themselves.
