Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Jakub Porzycki Nurphoto | Getty Images
Before Jack Nader started posting beauty videos on TikTok in 2023, he was working Starbucks He was a bartender in Chicago and lived at home with his parents.
But after Nader, now 21, started taking his videos seriously in April of that year, his TikTok account exploded. With over half a million followers, she was able to generate enough income through brand endorsements and a share of ad revenue that she quit her cafe gig and got her own apartment.
“This is my 9-to-5 job,” Nader, who said he earns between $1,000 and $12,000 a month as a founder, told CNBC. “This is what I do for a living. It’s how I pay for my groceries. It’s how millions of small businesses make money.”
Nader’s new reality, however, is far from stable. TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, is approaching a January 19 deadline. sell it, or it has a ban Like many other creators who have relied on TikTok in the US, Nader has urged his fans to find him on other social media apps before he loses them entirely and the huge income that replaces them.
“Not all of them my TikTok the successor will come, and that’s really sad,” Nader said.
The TikTok threat has been around for years, but it escalated after April President Joe Biden signed by the law which prompts ByteDance to dismantle the short-form video app this month. If ByteDance doesn’t sell TikTok in time, the apple and google will be required by law to ensure that their platforms do not support the application in the US
President-elect Donald Trumpwho supported the TikTok ban in his first administration, has since reversed course. At the end of last month, he he requested The Supreme Court intervened and forcibly delayed the implementation of Biden’s ban to give time to find a “political solution”. Its inauguration is on January 20.
Trump’s rhetoric on TikTok began to change after that they met in February With billionaire Jeff Yass, a Republican megadonor and a major investor in ByteDance, who also has an ownership stake. Social TruthTrump’s social media company.
Supreme Court heard oral arguments from both sides on January 10. During the more than two-hour hearing, the judges asked TikTok’s top lawyer questions about the app’s ties to China and were generally unconvinced by TikTok’s main argument that the law violates the free speech rights of millions of people. US individual users
On Thursday, businessman Frank McCourt’s internet advocacy group Freedom project It announced that it had submitted a proposal to buy TikTok from ByteDance. Calling it a “citizen’s bid for TikTok,” the group said it would restructure the app to be on a US platform and prioritize users’ digital security, though it did not disclose the terms of its bid.
Jack Nader, a 21-year-old from Chicago, is a full-time TikTok creator who has started moving his content from the Chinese-owned app to Meta’s Instagram Reels and Alphabet’s YouTube Shorts.
Courtesy of Jack Nader
Judgment may come at a moment’s notice. Nader isn’t waiting for a resolution to figure out what’s next.
He is downloading four to five of his TikTok videos every day to keep the content while he migrates. Meta’s Instagram Reels and the alphabet YouTube shorts. After downloading the videos, Nader re-edits them, optimizing the clips for each application.
“It took me over a year and a half to build the following I have right now on TikTok to be my full-time job,” Nader said. “Now it’s about rebuilding the whole brand on another platform, which is not ideal.”
Nader said he’s not making any money from Reels or Shorts yet.
“This isn’t just a stupid app”
Danisha Carter, 27, is in a similar place. A resident of Los Angeles, Carter has been a full-time creator since 2021, posting social commentary and lifestyle videos. Although he had known about the TikTok ban for months, he said he got a wake-up call in the middle of the night in November.
“I have to start taking this seriously before I lose access to the platform I’ve built and the following I’ve built,” Carter said, recalling realizing his panic. “I don’t need to waste any more time.”
Carter, who previously worked in luxury retail, has been terminated his TikTok videos telling his followers they can find him on YouTube, Instagram and Patreon.
“This is not some stupid app that people are using to post dance videos,” said Carter, who earns an average of about $4,000 a month from her TikTok activity. “It has been remarkable in terms of changing people’s lives, in terms of changing people’s businesses.”
Danisha Carter, a 27-year-old from Los Angeles, is a full-time TikTok creator who has started to finish her videos asking her fans to follow her on YouTube, Instagram and Patreon before the Jan. 19 law banning the Chinese-owned app goes into effect.
Courtesy of Danisha Carter
TikTok could still find a way to continue operating in the US, but if the app is discontinued, experts predict that YouTube, Facebook and Instagram will be the biggest winners in the fall.
TikTok has about 115 million monthly active users in the US, closely followed by YouTube with 258 million and Facebook with 253 million, according to the market intelligence firm. Sensor tower. Instagram has 131 million. Short videos, which mimic TikTok clips, are gaining audiences on those apps, accounting for about 41% of users’ time on Instagram, Sensor Tower data shows.
Although TikTok has a smaller user base in the US and a smaller share of total ad dollars than its main rivals, it is a leading platform for creators, focusing primarily on short-form content.
The HyperAuditor Influencer marketing platform defines an influencer as a user with more than 1,000 subscribers. TikTok has nearly 8.5 million people in the U.S. who fall into that category, with about 5.2 million on Instagram and 1.1 million on YouTube, according to HyperAuditor.
Meanwhile, TikTok accounts for 9% of digital ad spending on US social media platforms, according to Sensor Tower, compared to 31% for Facebook, 25% for Instagram and 21% for YouTube.
If TikTok were to go away, “competitors are worth billions of dollars that could be taken advantage of,” Sensor Tower told CNBC in an email. Electronic commerce If the ban goes into effect, he estimates that Meta and YouTube could take about half of the reallocated dollars.
That kind of market shift has happened elsewhere. India banned TikTok As of June 2020, the app had around 150 million monthly users in the country. A year later, Instagram’s monthly active users in India increased by 20% and YouTube by 11% year-over-year, according to Sensor Tower estimates.
“That’s when we saw the biggest jump in Reels usage ever,” said Meghana Dhar, a former Instagram executive who was at the company at the time of India’s ban. “If TikTok gets banned and creators have to scramble, between YouTube Shorts and Instagram, many creators are already hedging their bets.”
Meanwhile, Instagram executives held a series of impromptu meetings after hearing oral arguments before the Supreme Court on Friday, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC. Although many at the company had long expected TikTok to remain active in the U.S., Instagram leaders began directing their teams to prepare for potential users if the ban were to pass, said the person, who asked not to be named for confidentiality. .
(L-R) Sarah Baus of Charleston, SC holds a ‘Keep TikTok’ sign as she and fellow content creators Sallye Miley of Jackson, Mississippi and Callie Goodwin of Columbia sit outside the US Supreme Court building as court . hears oral arguments on whether to repeal or delay a law that could ban TikTok in the US on January 10, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Andrew Harnik | Getty Images
The need to diversify
Kristina Nolan, vice president of media services at marketing agency DMi Partners, said TikTok’s situation is another example of why social media creators must always diversify.
“We’re constantly reminding them to create audience depth on other platforms,” said Nolan, whose agency works with more than 50,000 creatives.
In recent weeks, DMi has seen more of its founders begin migrating elsewhere in different ways, Nolan said. But they have to be careful. Nolan said some creators worry that TikTok will “shadow ban” them, or reduce their exposure to users, if the technology recognizes that their profiles are being promoted elsewhere.
Some creators will suggest that followers find them on “fbook” instead of typing in Facebook, for example. Others will blurt out enough words to get the message across to their followers in an attempt to avoid detection on TikTok, Nolan said. Some creators are teaming up with brands to reward users for promoting them gifts for users who follow them in other applications, he added.
“Obviously, they’re not saying ‘Come to Instagram,'” Nolan said. “They say, ‘Go follow me’ and they’re talking.”
After working at a horse farm, Nealie Boschma, 27, was able to move to Los Angeles and make a full-time living as a creator after starting to post videos on TikTok in 2022.
Courtesy of Nealie Boschma
Although there are many other ways to find large audiences, creators are worried about trying to rebuild their business and whether enough followers will migrate with them.
“What’s going to happen is going to happen, and we’re going to make the most of it,” said Nealie Boschma, 27, of Los Angeles, who has been living as a full-time maker since 2022. “That’s just how I have to look so I don’t panic.”
Despite the potential upheaval, Boschma said she sees the potential ban as an opportunity to expand her career and become more creative.
Boschma started doing it TikTok videos After quitting his job at a horse farm, he chose to live off his savings while experimenting as a creator. Boschma’s bet on himself worked and he has earned enough to live in Los Angeles, paying for his own place and a car.
Now he’s making sure his TikTok fans see links to other profiles so they can find him on other apps, including YouTube. If the ban passes, Boschma said he plans to make a video asking his fans to follow him elsewhere.
It will be quite an increase, as he currently has 2 million followers on TikTok compared to just 278,000 on YouTube. But Boschma said he’ll try to make long-form videos, something he’s always wanted to explore.
“Whether TikTok goes away or not, I think something will come out of it,” Boschma said. “I’ll find my footing in other places, like TikTok.”
