With TikTok wiped from US app stores, used phones with the app are priced as high as $50,000 on eBay
If you were a PhoneArena reader in early 2014, you might recall our coverage of the Flappy Bird sensation. The game was a huge hit and required the player to navigate Flappy Bird through an assortment of pipes. Misjudge Flappy Birds' clearance through the pipes and BUZZ! The game comes to an end. To say that Flappy Bird was popular in early 2014 would be like calling The Beatles just another rock band.
At its peak, Flappy Bird was taking in $50,000 a day in ad revenue and in-app accessory sales. By January 2014, Flappy Bird was the most downloaded free game in the App Store. Less than two weeks after the game was listed in the Google Play Store, developer Dong Nguyen pulled the app from all platforms. As a result of this shocking move, Flappy Bird was no longer available from the App Store or the Play Store setting up a truly unique dynamic. Used iOS and Android models with Flappy Bird pre-installed were going on sale for truly stupendous prices. For example, an iPhone 5 with 16GB of storage pre-loaded with Flappy Bird received five and six-digit bids on eBay!
This phenomenon is repeating itself thanks to the great American pastime TikTok. When we last left the short-form video app, a U.S. law signed by former President Joe Biden forced TikTok owner ByteDance to shut the app in the U.S. unless an American buyer could be found for it before January 19th. Last Saturday night TikTok started to disappear from phones in the U.S. as well as U.S. app storefronts such as Apple's App Store and the Google Play Store.
Phones with TikTok pre=installed are going for huge premiums in the U.S. | Image credit-eBay
TikTok flickered back to life the next day after newly installed President Donald Trump signed an executive order requesting that his Attorney General not enforce the TikTok ban for 75 days. During this period, the Trump administration will figure out "the appropriate course forward in an orderly way that protects national security while avoiding an abrupt shutdown" of the app."
Since Apple and Google have decided not to list TikTok on their U.S. app storefronts until the app finds an American sugar daddy, those who didn't install the app on their phones before last weekend are out of luck. That is, unless they don't mind reaching DEEP into their pockets to buy a phone that already has TikTok installed on it. It's Flappy Bird all over again. On eBay, a wide variety of phones with TikTok pre-installed were offered at prices ranging from $340 to as much as $50,000.
A previously-owned mid-range Galaxy A54 locked to T-Mobile with 128GB of storage comes with TikTok and is priced at $10,000 on eBay. The phone retails for about $450 without TikTok. How ridiculous these prices get will be determined by just how desperate some U.S. phone owners are to have TikTok on their handsets.
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