President Trump’s proposed 90-day delay on the ban on TikTok in the USA provides hope that significant disruption to businesses involved in digital marketing can be averted. The USA has been trying to persuade Chinese tech firm ByteDance to transfer its ownership of the app to an American entity over fears that Beijing is hoarding personal data.
Trump has proposed a joint venture with the USA taking a 50% share of the firm, which offers hope that the massive TikTok influencer market there can continue.
The stakes are high.
Research shows there are 170 million TikTok users in the USA and Americans spend an average of 51 minutes daily using the app and billions of dollars of advertising spending are in flux. Amelia Hayes, a leading Influencer marketing agency senior executive, said: “If a ban became a permanent thing it would mean that businesses would be forced to move to use fewer effective channels to reach their markets.
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“It would disrupt marketing strategies for those that depend on viral trends and its algorithm to target customers. Delaying a ban is good news as it holds out the prospect of a positive resolution on the issue, potentially averting major economic losses for individual influencers and businesses. A ban would mean the US government telling Google and Apple to make TikTok unavailable for download in the US, which would put an estimated 7 million businesses in a difficult position. Trump’s proposed compromise deal offers hope to tens of thousands of TikTok influencers that they can continue to use their main platform.”
Amelia is a senior manager with Influencer Matchmaker, which specialises in matching brands with the world’s top celebrities and influencers.
She added: “We’re already seeing many businesses being cautious and moving more of their marketing to Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and Snapchat. We’ve also seen some influencers moving to a TikTok alternative called RedNote, which has some 300 million users, though largely based in China currently. Meta’s recent moves to scale back content moderation could also make Facebook a more attractive prospect for some brands – we’re talking about the redistribution of billions of dollars in ad spending.”
