“I’m afraid” that they will ban TikTok “Because I will have to start from scratch,” says Ayman Chaudhary, one of the millions of content creators worried that the United States will ban their leading application.
“It’s my full-time job,” the Chicago resident adds to AFP. “It has taken me four years to get to this level, where I can support myself and my family,” she maintains.
This week, the United States passed a law forcing Chinese entertainment giant ByteDance to sell TikTok within twelve months, otherwise the social network could be banned.
This “would have a devastating effect on 7 million businesses“, considered a spokesperson for the globally popular short video platform, used by 170 million people only in the United States.
“It is an impediment to our freedom of expression,” denounces Chaudhary. “It’s a little scary to live in a country where Congress and the president pass these kinds of laws, instead of dealing with things that are really important, like gun control or health care,” he says.
A fan of reading, this 23-year-old makes a living making videos in which she recommends books to her more than 940,000 followers on the platform. Her income comes from advertising and sponsors such as Spotify and the audiobook company Audible.
He joined TikTok during the Covid-19 pandemic, but started taking the app seriously a few months later when some of his posts went viral.
“The magic of TikTok”
“I had mentioned a book and suddenly it was sold out everywhere,” he recalls. “This shows the power that a single community can have on TikTok,” the influencer believes.
For Jasmine Enberg, analyst at the consulting firm Emarketer, “no other platform offers this potential to be discovered”.
“The TikTok algorithm has an unmatched ability to surface relevant content for each user,” he explains.
Precisely, the success of the platform, and the concern it raises among US authorities, is largely linked to its powerful algorithms.
Instagram, YouTube and snapchat They have imitated this format of short videos, designed to be consumed like candy at a fast pace, but they have not achieved the same level of relevance in their recommendations.
“In my opinion, it is the small businesses that have not yet taken the step that will probably suffer the most,” believes Enberg.
Especially niche products. “That’s the magic of TikTok: Everything is sold, from yoga leggings to kitchen sponges. You can go to Instagram, but the application does not have the same power in terms of virality and e-commerce,” explains the analyst.
What’s more, young adults now use TikTok to search on the internet.
When asked which applications are useful for finding information about local businesses, 67% of young people between 18 and 24 years old responded that Instagram, while 62% opted for TikTokeven ahead of Google (61%), according to a study by the American marketing company SOCi.
“Devastating” decision
“For example, people write ‘terrace bar in Dallas,’” details Damian Rollison, director of SOCi. In response, instead of reading reviews, they get user videos “that give a more visceral and concrete idea of a place.”
Despite the filters and special effects, TikTok is seen as more authentic than Instagram by young audiences, including Bilal Rehman, a 24-year-old interior designer.
This young man built his business – with more than 20 employees divided between design, marketing and a gallery – “thanks to TikTok”, where he posts humorous videos for his almost 500,000 followers.
“You guys love it when I tell you what not to do, so here are three fabrics I would never use on a sofa,” she says in one, before explaining that lace, in particular, is likely to evoke “ “granny diapers.” All of this with a lot of grace, jokes and changes of scenery.
In the first year, His company generated revenues of several million dollars.
Yeah TikTok disappears in the United States, new orders are likely to sell out quickly, since the platform “constantly provides me with new clients and new projects,” says this resident of Houston, Texas.
Many American politicians have accused the social network of allowing China to spy on users. But, according to Bilal, “these are old people who don’t understand anything” and their decision will be “devastating for millions of people.”
