Jakub Bolzycki | Noor Photos | Getty Images
Before Jack Nader started posting beauty videos on TikTok in 2023, he was Starbucks A barista in Chicago who lives at home with his parents.
But in April of that year, after Nader, now 21, started taking his videos seriously, his TikTok account exploded. With more than 500,000 followers, he was able to earn enough through brand sponsorships and a share of advertising revenue that he quit his job at a coffee shop and got his own apartment.
“This is my 9-to-5 job,” Nader told CNBC. “This is how I make a living. This is how I pay for my groceries. This is how millions of small businesses make their money.”
Nader’s new reality, however, is far from stable. TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, is approaching a January 19 deadline by which the company must sell the product or face a ban in the United States. before urging his fans to find him before other social media apps risk losing them entirely and the considerable revenue stream they represent.
“Not everyone is from My TikTok What’s going to happen next is really sad,” Nader said.
Risks for TikTok have been present for years but intensified after President Joe Biden signed a law in April requiring ByteDance to divest the short-video app. If ByteDance fails to sell TikTok in time, apple and Google will be legally forced to ensure that its platform no longer supports the app in the United States
President-elect Donald Trump supported a ban on TikTok during his first administration, but has since reversed course on the issue. At the end of last month, he urge The Supreme Court stepped in and forced a delay on Biden’s ban to give him time to find a “political solution.” His inauguration will take place on January 20.
Trump’s rhetoric on TikTok begins to shift Met in February Partnering with billionaire Jeff Yass, a Republican megadonor and major investor in ByteDance who also has a stake in ByteDance’s owner truth societyTrump’s social media company.
On January 10, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments from both sides. The main argument is that the law violates the free speech rights of millions of individual users in the United States
On Thursday, businessman Frank McCourt’s internet advocacy group Project Liberty announced it had submitted a proposal to acquire TikTok from ByteDance. Calling it “the people’s bid for TikTok,” the group said it would restructure the app to run on a U.S.-owned platform and prioritize users’ digital security, but did not disclose the terms of its bid.
Jack Nader, a 21-year-old Chicagoan who is a full-time TikTok creator, has begun moving his content away from the Chinese app and onto Meta’s Instagram Reels and Alphabet’s YouTube Shorts.
Courtesy of Jack Nader
A ruling will likely be made at some point. Nader won’t wait for a solution to determine next steps.
Currently, he downloads four to five TikTok videos every day in order to migrate the content to Yuan Instagram Reels and alphabetical YouTube clips. After downloading the videos, Nader re-edited them, optimizing the clips for each app.
“It took me over a year and a half to build the following content on TikTok and make it my full-time job,” Nader said. “Now it’s a matter of rebuilding the entire brand on another platform, which is not ideal.”
Nader said he hasn’t made any money from Reels or Shorts yet.
“It’s not just a stupid app”
Danisha Carter, 27, faced a similar situation. Carter, a Los Angeles resident, has been a full-time creator since 2021, posting social commentary and lifestyle videos. Although she had known about the TikTok ban for months, she said she was given a wake-up call in the middle of the night in November.
“I needed to start taking this seriously before I lost access to the platform I’d built and the following I’d built,” Carter recalled of her panicked realization. “I can’t waste any more time.”
Carter previously worked in luxury retail but has now left Her TikTok videos Tell her fans they can find her on YouTube, Instagram and Patreon.
“It’s not just a silly app that people use to post dance videos,” said Carter, who makes an average of about $4,000 a month from her TikTok activities. “In terms of changing people’s lives, changing people’s businesses, it’s pretty remarkable.”
Danisha Carter, a 27-year-old Los Angeles native who is a full-time TikTok creator, started asking fans to follow on YouTube, Instagram and Patreon ahead of the Jan. 19 law banning the Chinese app. She ends her film.
Courtesy Denisha Carter
Experts predict that TikTok may still find a way to continue operating in the United States, but if the app is indeed suspended, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram will be the biggest winners from the incident.
TikTok has about 115 million monthly active users in the U.S., far behind YouTube’s 258 million and Facebook’s 253 million, according to data from a market intelligence firm. sensor tower. Instagram has 131 million users. Sensor Tower data shows that short videos imitating TikTok clips are gaining more viewers on these apps, accounting for about 41% of Instagram users’ time.
Although TikTok has a smaller user base in the United States and a lower share of total ad revenue than its main rivals, it is a dominant platform for creators, especially those who focus on short-form content.
Influencer marketing platform HyperAuditor defines a creator as a user with more than 1,000 subscribers. According to HyperAuditor, TikTok has nearly 8.5 million people in this category in the United States, compared with about 5.2 million people on Instagram and 1.1 million people on YouTube.
At the same time, according to Sensor Tower data, TikTok accounts for 9% of digital advertising expenditures on social media platforms in the United States, while Facebook accounts for 31%, Instagram accounts for 25%, and YouTube accounts for 21%.
Sensor Tower told CNBC in an email that if TikTok disappeared, “it would equate to billions of dollars that competitors could potentially capture.” electronic marketer It is estimated that Meta and YouTube could receive about half of the reallocated funds if the ban were to take effect.
This type of market shift has occurred elsewhere. India bans TikTok In June 2020, the app had approximately 150 million monthly users in the country. According to Sensor Tower estimates, one year later, Instagram’s monthly active users in India increased by 20% over the years, while YouTube’s monthly active users increased by 11% year-on-year.
“That’s when we saw the biggest jump in Reels utilization ever,” said Meghana Dhar, a former Instagram executive who worked at the company when the Indian ban was implemented. “If TikTok is banned and creators have to fight between YouTube Shorts and Instagram, many creators are already hedging their bets.”
At Meta, leaders within Instagram scheduled multiple impromptu meetings for Friday after hearing oral arguments before the Supreme Court, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC. While many within the company have long expected TikTok to remain active in the U.S., Instagram leaders began instructing their teams to prepare for a potential influx of users if the ban passes, said the person, who asked not to be identified for confidentiality reasons. Prepare.
(Left) Sarah Baus of Charleston, South Carolina, with fellow content creators Sallye Miley of Jackson, Mississippi, and Carly Goode of Columbia, South Carolina Callie Goodwin stood outside the U.S. Supreme Court building with “Keep TikTok” written on her hand. law.
Andrew Harnick | Getty Images
need diversification
Kristina Nolan, vice president of media services at marketing agency DMi Partners, said TikTok’s situation is the latest example of how social media creators should always diversify their followings.
“We constantly remind them to create audience depth on other platforms,” said Nolan, whose agency works with more than 50,000 creators.
Nolan said that in recent weeks, DMi has seen more creators begin to use various methods to move fans elsewhere. But they have to be careful. Nolan said some creators worry that TikTok will “shadow ban” them or reduce their exposure to users if TikTok technology recognizes that they promote their profiles elsewhere.
For example, some creators will advise fans to find them on “fbook” rather than writing on Facebook. Others will make enough noise to get a message out to their followers while hoping to avoid detection by TikTok, Nolan said. Some creators are partnering with brands to incentivize users through rewards giveaway For users who follow them on other apps, she added.
“They’re obviously not saying, ‘Come to Instagram,'” Nolan said. “They were like, ‘Follow me,’ and then they mouthed it.”
Nealie Boschma, 27, started posting videos on TikTok in 2022 after working at a horse farm, and then moved to Los Angeles to create full-time.
Courtesy of Nelly Bosma
Even with multiple other options for finding a large audience, creators still worry about trying to rebuild their business and whether enough followers will migrate with them.
“Whatever happens happens, we just have to make the best of it,” said Nealie Boschma, a 27-year-old Los Angeles native who has been living as a full-time creator since 2022. .
Despite the potential upheaval, Boschma said she sees the potential ban as an opportunity to expand her career and become more creative.
Bosma begins production TikTok videos After quitting his job at a racecourse, he chose to live on his savings while trying to become a creator. Bosma’s bet on herself worked, and she made enough money to live in Los Angeles and pay for her own house and car.
Now, she’s making sure her TikTok followers see links to her other profiles so they can find her on other apps like YouTube. Boschma said that if the ban passes, she plans to create a video specifically asking her fans to follow her elsewhere.
This would be a huge boost as she currently has 2 million followers on TikTok and only 278,000 on YouTube. But Bosma said she will try to make longer videos, an area she has always wanted to explore.
“Whether TikTok disappears or not, I do think some things will work out,” Bosma said. “I will establish myself somewhere else, just like I did on TikTok.”
watch: Christoff & Co. CEO Niki Christoff says the Supreme Court may uphold TikTok ban
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