Frank McCourt announced on Monday that Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder of Reddit and a venture capitalist, has joined his bid to acquire TikTok’s U.S. operations as a strategic adviser specializing in social media.
Ohanian was an internet pioneer who founded Reddit with his roommate from the University of Virginia. He sold it to Conde Nast in 2006, then returned in 2014 as executive chair to lead a turnaround. He also has invested in a number of tech companies, including Instacart, Patreon and OpenSea.
“He has that broad portfolio of experience … of where social media was and, I think, a keen understanding of where it’s evolving,” said McCourt.
McCourt said Ohanian will help promote the Project Liberty bid to buy the U.S. assets of TikTok, which he calls “The People’s Bid,” because of plans to run the app on technology that lets users control how their data will be used and shared.
“Where he can help mostly is validating but also socializing what we’re doing,” said McCourt. “On the one hand, this is a project which has very sophisticated technology at the core, and so you’re dealing with a very specific audience when it comes to demonstrating the validity of that technology and in how it works, and why it’s necessary.”
