AP Microsoft's plans to buy TikTok may seem crazy at first, but it's all about the data. TikTok would give Microsoft eyes into a market where it is mostly blind: smartphone use among Generation Z. But there's another appealing side for Microsoft: TikTok is reportedly a huge customer of arch-rival Google Cloud. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. At first glance, Microsoft's talks to acquire TikTok's US operations from Chinese owner ByteDance seems somewhere between odd and crazy.