Sat Jan 25 16:20:00 IST 2025: ## TikTok Ban Fuels Unexpected Market: Phones Preloaded with App Fetch Thousands on Online Marketplaces

**San Francisco, CA –** The temporary ban on TikTok downloads in the US has created a bizarre new market: pre-owned smartphones with the app pre-installed are selling for exorbitant prices on online marketplaces like eBay and Facebook Marketplace.

Following a brief outage, TikTok remains inaccessible for download on Apple and Google app stores. This has led some sellers to capitalize on the situation, listing phones and tablets containing TikTok, along with other ByteDance apps like Lemon8 and CapCut, for prices ranging from a few hundred dollars to as much as $50,000. While high-priced listings are plentiful, those priced in the hundreds of dollars appear to be attracting the most bids.

One New York seller, Nicholas Matthews, listed his iPhone 14 Plus with TikTok for $10,000, currently receiving a high bid of $4,550. He explained his decision by citing the high demand for the app.

The ban, temporarily paused until early April by President Trump, affects only the app’s availability for download, not its use by existing users. Despite this, the scarcity has driven up prices for devices already possessing the app, affecting the approximately 170 million US TikTok users.

eBay has yet to comment on the unusual surge in these listings. The long-term future of TikTok in the US remains uncertain, pending the resolution of legal questions surrounding the ban and potential negotiations with the app’s Chinese parent company.

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