The US Supreme Court docket has backed the ban of TikTok, which means the app can be shut down in america on Sunday (19 January).
This comes after Chinese language proprietor ByteDance was ordered to promote TikTok to a US purchaser final April, after considerations over nationwide safety and the potential unfold of propaganda and disinformation.
The app has greater than 170 million customers within the US, with manufacturers investing giant sums of cash. Advert spend within the US throughout Q3 of final 12 months alone was $2.17bn, with spend projected to be $4.17bn in This autumn 2026, in keeping with WARC, which means TikTok stands to lose billions.
Nevertheless, President-elect Donald Trump may overturn the ban when he takes workplace on Monday (20 January). He has beforehand mentioned he’ll again the app and could have the choice to advise the justice division to drop the regulation.
Impression on creators
Consultants acknowledge the numerous blow TikTok’s ban within the US may need to the creator financial system.
Scott Guthrie, director basic of the Influencer Advertising Commerce Physique, tells Advertising Week he sees the ban as having a knock-on impact on the UK creator financial system, however says creators are taking steps to mitigate the fallout.
“A ban would influence many UK creators, doubtlessly culling 30-40% of their views at a stroke. However creators are resilient and are already diversifying their income streams,” he says, as creators have already moved to the likes of RedNote, Reels and YouTube Shorts.
He says going ahead “advertisers must know the place their key audiences are and the place they’re migrating to”.
“The ‘TikTokification’ of social media is greater than TikTok,” he provides. “Many different platforms have aped TikTok’s options. Advertisers must observe wherever their communities head and be part of the dialog there.”
Thomas Walters, Europe CEO and co-founder of Billion Greenback Boy, tells Advertising Week the ban could have an “speedy influence”, and entrepreneurs might want to rethink “how they solid creators and are integrating their creator content material with the creators that can be impacted extra meaningfully into their paid media plans”.
“Creators within the UK have a comparatively giant proportion of their followers from the US. Consequently, there’ll seemingly be a success on natural efficiency throughout manufacturers and creators in the event that they’ve received giant followings within the US market.”
He says he doesn’t see engagement in TikTok general lowering because the app is “effectively beloved”. He provides: “TikTok has been getting ready for this for a while now”, and has been “looking for to guard itself”, indicated by means of “producing income from codecs that aren’t as reliant on advertisers” reminiscent of TikTok Store and TikTok Reside.
When it comes to the place manufacturers and creators might migrate, he agrees with Guthrie and sees Instagram Reels as benefitting as a result of being “probably the most related expertise to TikTok”. He additionally thinks YouTube Shorts will profit.
Nearer to dwelling, he notes that this could possibly be a possibility for “doubtlessly far better audiences for UK manufacturers”.
“If you consider going world and filling the void left by American creator content material, there’s actual potential – as a lot as there’s a threat,” Walters concludes.
‘Disruptive’
Forrester’s principal analyst Kelsey Chickering agrees a ban can be “extremely disruptive” to the influencer and creator group, and sees it as a “reminder that social media platforms can come and go, and diversified content material distribution is essential”.
“It’s the place over 1,000,000 creators have invested in making content material and amassing a following that a lot of them have successfully monetised. If entry to TikTok merely disappears, they should pivot and rebuild their followings, fairness, and content material on different platforms – seemingly Instagram and YouTube,” she says.
She advises advertisers to “pull out their contingency plans for each their paid media {dollars} that have been deliberate for TikTok and creator partnerships”.
“In the long run, they might must revisit the combo of creators they work with to make sure they’ve partnerships with creators finest fitted to this new social media panorama,” she provides, saying that Meta and Google could have “lots to realize” if the ban stands.
Forrester’s analysis on US TikTok customers final month discovered that 56% would use Instagram Reels extra if TikTok will get banned, and 51% would flip to YouTube shorts. It additionally experiences that CMOs would divert their media {dollars} to Meta and Google.
