TikTok's algorithm is the "secret sauce" behind the app's success, experts say. U.S.-China talks over the app's ownership must resolve who controls the technology.

Tech giant Oracle will spearhead a new joint venture being cobbled together to take over the U.S. oversight of the algorithm and security underlying TikTok’s taste-making video platform under the terms of a deal laid out Monday by President Donald Trump’s administration.

A rumored split between TikTok’s algorithm in the United States and the computer code running the app elsewhere could put off users—and destroy TikTok’s secret sauce.

Algorithms, which are just sets of instructions expressed in code, are harder to restrict than physical goods. But governments, including the U.S., have long tried to prevent their export.

In the United States, TikTok will be operated by a board of directors with national security and cybersecurity credentials, one of the senior officials said. ByteDance will choose one director on the seven-member board, and that person will be excluded from TikTok’s security committee.

White House says it has finally reached an agreement with China to secure the future of the popular social video app in the U.S., with software giant Oracle taking responsibility for users’ data

There are two layers to the TikTok algorithm. First, there is the abstract layer that defines the outcome developers wish to accomplish. An internal document shared with The New York Times specified that TikTok’s algorithm optimizes for four goals: “user value,” “long-term user value,” “creator value” and “platform value.”