What a world without TikTok could look like
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Wednesday marks one week since Shou Zi Chew, CEO of social media giant TikTok, testified before Congress about the company’s data practices.
Chew told lawmakers the company is “committed to user safety, data protection, and security, and keeping the platform free from Chinese government influence,” and urged officials not to pursue an all-out ban on TikTok or push for the company to be sold to new ownership.
Seven days later, the future of TikTok in the U.S. remains murky, leading many to ask, “What would a world without TikTok look like?”
Nelson Spade, the general manager of WISH-TV’s sister company, Circulus Digital Media, says the loss of TikTok would have a major impact on digital marketing.
“TikTok is just a big business and makes a big headline. We’re talking over a $220 billion valuation. According to Bloomberg, 50 million of that is here in the United States. It’s amassed over 150 million users every single month in the United States. For advertisers, specifically, those that are looking to reach the Gen Z population, that’s over 60% of the users in the past few months.”
Spade suggests businesses that use TikTok consider making plans now in case the platform is sold, sees major changes, or goes away altogether.
If things go south for TikTok, it could be an opportunity for other platforms to get another look from marketers, Spade says.
“Instagram Stories are exceedingly more and more similar. Instagram has the biggest overlap with TikTok users as well — over 75% of TikTok users also are on Instagram. So that’s a natural change there — even more specifically, that Gen Z audience is a big overlap. Now, for the older users, YouTube Shorts is most likely to gain some popularity.”
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