The American government launched a fierce war against “Tik Tok” from the first moment of its appearance in 2017, because the application is owned by the Chinese company “ByteDance”. It is a war whose first chapters began with the previous term of Donald Trump, and now after the Supreme Constitutional Court’s decision was upheld, It is up to Trump once again to end or extend this war.
Similar to world wars, the war of laws between “Tik Tok” and the American government may cause many victims, most notably millions of Americans who have used the application as a source of income and a marketing platform for their small projects on the journey to achieving financial success.
In recent years, the “Tik Tok” application has enabled millions to make thousands of dollars per month, whether as content creators or small business owners, which is something that the “Tik Tok” management is well aware of and is trying to promote, declaring that banning “Tik Tok” is harmful to the American economy, but what How true is this claim?
An individual effect is more dangerous than the total
The TikTok application enjoys a very wide audience within American borders, despite years of anti-advertising, as it has, according to the latest statistics, more than 170 million American users, with an economic impact exceeding $20 billion annually, as the company said.
However, it is difficult to determine the direct economic impact of the “Tik Tok” application on the American economy in general, but determining this impact on individuals is easier, due to the spread of cases that were able to achieve thousands of dollars per month through the application.
Ella Livingston – a former mathematics teacher and currently owner of the “Cocoa Asante” project, which makes artistic pieces of chocolate and employs more than six people in addition to Livingston herself – believes that banning the application is costing her a lot, as it causes her to lose $25,000 a month that she earned from advertising and marketing. Through the application, after reviewing one of the influencers in the application, she was able to access this income, which prompted her to resign from her day job.
Gift Oluwatoyi, a gaming content creator on the platform, tells a similar story to Livingston’s, as 19-year-old Oluwatoyi was able to generate more than $5,000 a month from the platform’s profits, in addition to direct advertising contracts for companies.
Perhaps the crisis of Oluwatoyi and Livingston was less severe than the one that occurred with Jessica Simon, who owns the “Mississippi Candles” company with her husband, as the latter was forced to move to a warehouse with an area exceeding 195 square meters, because 95% of the orders that come to her company come from “Tik Tok.” “, according to what she said in an interview with the Washington News newspaper, which means she lost a large part of her business after the application was banned.
Institutional losses as well
Perhaps the stories of individual losses of content creators and emerging entrepreneurs after the “Tik Tok” ban were more widespread than the losses of institutions and large companies, but this does not mean that they are absent or that they are not influential either.
“Tik Tok” has more than 7,000 employees working in the United States since 2023, and when the application is banned, they lose their jobs completely, causing a huge wave of layoffs that parallels the waves of layoffs amid “Covid-19”, in addition to the American companies that invested in “Byte.” Dance” and contributed to raising its valuation to $300 billion recently, as “BlackRock,” “General Atlantic,” and “Susquehanna International Group” are investing extensively in the application.
Although ByteDance did not reveal the actual investment numbers in the American TikTok alone, it is the main reason for these companies to invest in ByteDance.
The size of the American TikTok economy
Last March, TikTok management cooperated with Oxford Economics to issue a report directly showing the platform’s impact on the American economy.
According to this report, the platform contributes more than $24.2 billion annually to the United States economy, a number that is difficult to verify apart from this report.
-But it is expected that this number is not far from reality, given the platform’s sources of income and the mechanism by which it participates in the American economy, as “Tik Tok” contributes through more than one different path, starting with direct sales that take place through its stores, which reached 9.7%. Billions of dollars last year, through the profits from the views it provides to users and even the profits from direct advertisements that are displayed on the platform.
According to the platform’s annual report, the profits from these ads alone exceeded $8 billion.
There is also another aspect that must be considered, which is the aspect that Erik Brynjolfsson, head of the Digital Economy Laboratory at Stanford University, spoke about in a detailed study on the value of the free entertainment that “Tik Tok” provides to the American citizen.
This study relied on a main criterion, which is the cost of persuading the American citizen to voluntarily abandon the platform and move to other platforms, in order to estimate the cost of the entertainment that the platform provides to users, as the study determined this total cost at more than $73 billion in 2023.
A strong reason to reapply
The reasons behind the return of the TikTok platform to work in the United States are still unknown, although the platform explained that its return has a direct relationship with the newly elected US President, Donald Trump, as it appears that he intervened in a strong and influential way in order to get the application working again.
It is difficult to determine Trump’s goals in bringing the platform back to work, but it is noticeable that he has recently begun to use it extensively in his election campaign, and he also clearly said that the inauguration ceremony will be broadcast on TikTok and clips from it will be shared on the platform.
Trump is well aware of the clear impact of the TikTok platform on American society and how it has contributed to changing the income of many individuals. While the entire economy may not be affected by the ban, the impact will be very clear on everyone who relies on the platform to market their project or generate income.
It is noteworthy that the “Tik Tok” platform currently generates more than 9.7 billion dollars annually in direct sales through the stores feature available on it, without considering the sales that come indirectly through electronic stores outside the platform or cases of referrals to the platform directly, as well. Recent data indicates that there are more than 7 million commercial users on TikTok in the United States.
What happens now?
On the morning of Friday, January 17, the “Supreme Constitutional Court” approved the ban on “Tik Tok” in a vague manner, as it allowed the application to operate within America, but imposed fines on any company that cooperates with it, starting from phone stores to the servers that the platform uses, which is This was completely rejected by TikTok management.
On the morning of Sunday, January 19, the “Tik Tok” administration completely stopped the application, with a clear message accusing the American government of being the main reason for the disappearance of the application and its cessation of work, causing millions of Americans to lose their main source of income.
Hours later, the administration restored the application to work after a conversation held by Donald Trump with Chinese President Xi Jinping and the promise to resolve the crisis and reach a solution satisfactory to both parties, according to what Trump himself published on his “Truth Social” platform and a statement by “Tik Tok” on the “X” platform. .
Therefore, it can be said that the ban on “Tik Tok” has been halted for a temporary period until Trump takes over the Oval Office, and he will most likely then extend the deadline granted to the application to up to the next 3 months. While this appears to be a temporary solution, it was enough for the “Tik Tok” administration to return it. Application for work.
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