ByteDance in talks with India’s Reliance for investment in TikTok

Chinese giant

ByteDance

is engaging with India’s Reliance

Industries Limited, the parent firm of telecom giant Jio Platforms, for investment in TikTok’s India operations in a move to potentially save the short form video app’s fate in its biggest market by users, two people familiar with the matter told TechCrunch.

The two companies began conversations late last month, and have yet to reach a deal, the sources said.

TikTok’s

India business, where it had amassed over 200 million users before it was banned in late June

, is being valued at more than $3 billion, one of the sources said. ByteDance did not respond to a request for comment.

An investment by Reliance would help the oil-to-retails giant make deeper connections with consumers. Even as Jio Platforms has amassed nearly 400 million users in India in the less than four years, its consumer-facing apps have struggled to gain wider appeal.

Since late April this year, Indian giant’s digital venture has raised about

$20 billion from 13 high-profile investors

including Facebook and Google.

This is a developing story…