Creators Search for Alternative Platforms as TikTok Ban Looms
By Movieguide® Contributor
TikTok content creators are seeking alternative apps following a federal bill requiring TikTok to sell its platform to an American company or be banned.
The platform’s fate is “set to take effect Jan. 19, the day before President-elect Donald Trump takes office,” NBC News reported. “The Supreme Court said it will take up TikTok’s appeal on Jan. 10.”
“So many people have found connection, communities, and people’s livelihoods now have been built from TikTok,” said Jenn Ficarra, a writer who used TikTok to help launch a baby-name consulting business. “I’m just really dismayed and annoyed and angry that something that is instrumental to so many people’s livelihoods is being stripped away.”
Though TikTok may pose a legitimate national security threat, many creators rely on it as a primary source of income. Many other people like Ficarra are feeling frustrated.
“There’s going to have to be sacrifices made, and it obviously does make me worry about everyday life, like groceries, rent, all those sorts of stuff,” said Jonathan Miller, who’s been a full-time creator for 14 years.
“Creators like Miller — who have amassed followings on TikTok but aren’t necessarily considered household names — hope to pivot to other platforms to make up for the income they expect to lose from the potential ends of their TikTok careers,” NBC reported.
Creators will lose $1.3 billion in earnings within one month of the app’s shutdown, TikTok said in a court filing this month.
“TikTok is the most commonly used platform by brands that engage in influencer marketing, according to a recent report by the Influencer Marketing Hub, which also found that 50% of influencer marketers believe TikTok delivers the best return on investment for short-form video content,” NBC reported. “It has become a giant in the evolving creator economy, which includes millions of social media personalities who make money through brand deals, platform monetization and audience subscriptions. Research from Goldman Sachs last year predicted that the total market opportunity of the creator economy could reach $480 billion by 2027.”
READ MORE: WOULD THE UNITED STATES EVER BAN CHILD SOCIAL MEDIA USE?
Cole Mason, co-founder of creator marketing company Pearpop, believes audiences will follow creators to whatever platform they choose.
Emarketer reported, “When asked which platform they would turn to if TikTok were banned, 40% of influencers chose Facebook, followed closely by Instagram at 33%.”
Miller has been using his TikTok to direct followers to his YouTube and Instagram and will test out new content to better cater to those platforms. Kalita Hon, a fashion influencer, is doing similarly. She’s focusing on Instagram reels, hoping that the fashion community will find a home on Instagram if TikTok is banned.
But “TikTok has so much culture that’s so specific to the app, because there are certain videos that will go insanely viral and then that will become, like, the next inside joke,” Hon said.
“Perhaps if you’re making millions of dollars you’re probably set, but I think there’s people that really rely on this and they’ve made this their job,” said Taylor Pare, a full-time TikTok creator. “And if the government feels that we’re not allowed to have this, I feel like there needs to be some compensation or stimulus financially.”
Some creators are considering using TikTok alternatives like Clapper and Neptune.
“Though Neptune has been in the works only since May, its CEO, Ashley Darling, said the sudden ‘mass panic and hysteria’ over TikTok’s looming ban injected so much user interest in the new app that her team is pushing up its release date to next spring, with beta testing to begin as early as January,” NBC said.
Mason said, “The TikTok ban, should it go into effect, will only be the latest in a long history of reinvention by creators and digital marketers…Before the rise of TikTok, we saw the rise and fall of Dubsmash, Vine, and countless other platforms, without any U.S. regulatory action. The same community that weathers sudden algorithm changes, the switch from long-form to short-form video, and a trend cycle that transforms by the minute can navigate a TikTok ban.”
However, Hon doubts that followers will seek out TikTok dupes.
“I think, if anything, people will just migrate to apps that are already established and have that notoriety,” she said.
If that turns out to be the case, those apps will soon be flooded with a lot of content, creator Jade Beason warns.
“Because a ban would primarily affect American TikTok users, the only people who’d have incentives to join a new app would be Americans, Hon said, with the possible addition of non-American users who hope to re-follow their favorite creators there,” NBC reported.
The ban would be positive for smaller creators, however, as they get a fresh start with little to lose.
“I’m not afraid of the hard work that it’s going to take, because I obviously did that with my business,” Ficarra said. “And I think there’s something exciting about a new platform coming along.”
“We all moved to TikTok. We all moved to YouTube. We all moved to Instagram…I joined BlueSky, which is kind of slowly replacing Twitter, maybe,” Miller said. “So if the right platform comes around, why not?”
READ MORE: SUPREME COURT AGREES TO HEAR APPEAL ON LAW BANNING TIKTOK
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