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Before Jack Nader started posting beauty videos on TikTok in 2023, he worked as Starbucks a barista in Chicago and lives at home with his parents.
But after Nader, now 21, started taking his videos seriously in April of that year, his TikTok account blew up. With more than half a million followers, he was able to generate enough revenue through brand sponsorships and his share of ad revenue that he quit his cafe gig and got his own apartment.
“This is my 9-to-5 job,” Nader, who said he makes between $1,000 and $12,000 a month as a creative, told CNBC. “This is what I do for a living. This is how I pay for my groceries. This is how millions of small businesses make their money.”
However, Nader’s new reality is far from stable. TikTok, which is owned by China’s ByteDance, is nearing its January 19 deadline sold or facing ban in the US Like many other creators who rely on TikTok, Nader is urging his fans to find him on other social media apps before he potentially loses them entirely and the significant revenue stream they represent.
“Not all of my TikTok the follow-up will come, and that’s really sad,” Nader said.
The risk of TikTok has been around for years, but it was raised the following April President Joe Biden signed a law which requires ByteDance to drop the short-form video app this month. If ByteDance fails to sell TikTok in time, An apple and Google will be forced by law to ensure that their platforms no longer support the app in the US
President-elect Donald Trumpwho supported banning TikTok during his first administration, has since backed down on the issue. At the end of last month he urged For the Supreme Court to step in and forcefully delay the implementation of Biden’s ban to give him time to find a “policy solution.” His inauguration is on January 20.
Trump’s rhetoric on TikTok began to backfire after he they met in February with billionaire Jeff Yass, a Republican megadonor and major investor in ByteDance, who also owns a stake in the owner of A social truthTrump’s social media company.
The Supreme Court listened to oral arguments on both sides on January 10. During the more than two-hour hearing, the justices peppered TikTok’s lead lawyer with questions about the app’s ties to China and generally seemed unconvinced by TikTok’s main argument that the law infringes on the free speech rights of its millions of individual users in the US
On Thursday, businessman Frank McCourt’s internet advocacy group Project Freedom announced that it has submitted an offer to buy TikTok from ByteDance. Calling it the “People’s Bid for TikTok,” the group said it would restructure the app to exist on an American-owned platform and prioritize users’ digital safety, though it did not disclose the terms of its bid.
Jack Nader, a 21-year-old from Chicago, is a full-time TikTok creator who began moving his content from the Chinese-owned app to Meta’s Instagram Reels and Alphabet’s YouTube Shorts.
Courtesy of Jack Nader
A solution may come at some point. Nader isn’t waiting for a decision to figure out what’s next.
He currently downloads four or five of his TikTok videos every day to save them while he migrates his content to of Meta Instagram drums and of the alphabet YouTube Shorts. After downloading the videos, Nader edits them again, optimizing the clips for each application.
“It took me over a year and a half to build the following I have now on TikTok to turn it into my full-time job,” Nader said. “Now it’s about rebuilding the whole brand on another platform that’s not ideal.”
Nader said he’s not making any money from Reels or Shorts yet.
“It’s not just a stupid app”
27-year-old Danisha Carter is in a similar place. A Los Angeles resident, Carter has been a full-time creator since 2021, posting social commentary and lifestyle videos. Although she had known about the TikTok ban for months, she said she had an awakening in the middle of the night in November.
“I’ve got to start taking this seriously before I lose access to the platform I’ve built and the following I’ve built,” Carter said, recalling his panicked realization. “I must waste no more time.”
Carter, who previously worked in luxury retail, is over her TikTok videos telling her followers they can find her on YouTube, Instagram and Patreon.
“It’s not just some stupid app that people use to post dance videos,” said Carter, who makes about $4,000 a month on average from her TikTok activity. “It’s been remarkable in terms of changing people’s lives, changing people’s businesses.”
Danisha Carter, 27, of Los Angeles, is a full-time TikTok creator who began curating her videos by asking her fans to follow her on YouTube, Instagram and Patreon before the Jan. 19 law banning the app-owned of China, to enter into force.
Courtesy of Danisha Carter
TikTok may still find a way to stay operational in the US, but if the app is shut down, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram are poised to be the biggest winners from the fallout, experts predict.
TikTok has about 115 million monthly active users in the US, well behind YouTube with 258 million and Facebook with 253 million, according to the market research firm Sensor tower. Instagram has 131 million. Short videos that mimic TikTok clips are gaining viewers on those apps, accounting for about 41 percent of user time on Instagram, Sensor Tower data shows.
Although TikTok has a smaller US user base and a lower share of total ad dollars than its leading competitors, it is the dominant platform for creators, especially those focusing on short-form content.
The HyperAuditor influencer marketing platform defines a creator as a user with over 1,000 subscribers. TikTok has nearly 8.5 million people in the U.S. who fit that category, compared to about 5.2 million on Instagram and 1.1 million on YouTube, according to HyperAuditor.
Meanwhile, TikTok accounts for 9% of digital ad spending on social media platforms in the US, according to Sensor Tower, compared to 31% for Facebook, 25% for Instagram and 21% for YouTube.
If TikTok goes away, “that equates to billions of dollars potentially up in the air for competitors to grab,” Sensor Tower said in an email to CNBC. E-merchant estimates that Meta and YouTube could grab about half of the redistributed dollars if the ban goes into effect.
This type of market change has happened elsewhere. India has banned TikTok in June 2020, when the app had about 150 million monthly users in the country. A year later, Instagram’s monthly active users in India are up 20%, while YouTube’s are up 11% year-over-year, according to Sensor Tower estimates.
“That’s when we saw the biggest spike in Reels usage ever,” said Meghana Dhar, a former Instagram executive who was with the company during the ban in India. “If TikTok gets banned and creators have to fight between YouTube Shorts and Instagram, many creators are already hedging their bets.”
At Meta, Instagram leaders scheduled multiple impromptu meetings Friday after hearing oral arguments before the Supreme Court, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC. Although many at the company had long expected TikTok to remain active in the U.S., Instagram leaders have begun directing their teams to prepare for a potential influx of users if the ban goes into effect, said the person, who asked not to be named for privacy reasons.
(L-R) Sarah Baus of Charleston, South Carolina holds a sign that reads “Save TikTok” as she and fellow content creators Sally Miley of Jackson, Mississippi and Callie Goodwin of Columbia, South Carolina stand outside the Supreme Court building on The US court hears oral arguments on whether to overturn or delay a law that could lead to a ban on TikTok in the US on January 10, 2025. in Washington, DC.
Andrew Harnick | Getty Images
Need for diversification
Christina Nolan, vice president of media services at marketing agency DMi Partners, said the TikTok situation is the latest example of why social media creators must always diversify their following.
“We’re constantly reminding them to create audience depth on other platforms,” ​​said Nolan, whose agency works with more than 50,000 creators.
In recent weeks, DMi has seen more of its creators begin migrating followers elsewhere in various ways, Nolan said. But they have to be careful. Nolan said some creators worry that TikTok will “shadow ban” them, or reduce their exposure to users, if the technology recognizes that they are promoting profiles elsewhere.
Some creators will suggest that followers find them on fbook, for example, instead of posting on Facebook. Others will drop enough words to get the message across to their followers while hoping to avoid detection on TikTok, Nolan said. Some creators team up with brands to incentivize users by holding a prize gifts for users who follow them on other apps, she added.
“They’re obviously not saying, ‘Come on Instagram,'” Nolan said. “They say, ‘Follow me,’ and they say it.”
After working on a horse farm, Nealy Boschma, 27, was able to move to Los Angeles and make a full-time living as a creator after starting to post videos on TikTok in 2022.
Courtesy of Nealie Boschma
Even with plenty of other options to find a large audience, creators worry about trying to rebuild their business and whether enough followers will migrate with them.
“Whatever happens, happens, and we’re just going to make the most of it,” said Nealee Boschma, a 27-year-old from Los Angeles who has been living as a full-time maker since 2022. “It’s just how I have to look at it so I don’t panic.”
Despite the potential upheaval, Boschma said she sees the potential ban as an opportunity to expand her career and become more creative.
Boschma started making TikTok videos after quitting his job working on a horse farm, choosing to live off his savings while experimenting as a creative. Boschma’s bet on herself worked, and she won enough to live in Los Angeles, paying for her own house and car.
Now she makes sure her TikTok fans see the links to her other profiles so they can find her on other apps, including YouTube. If the ban goes into effect, Boschma said she plans to make a video specifically asking her fans to follow her elsewhere.
This will be a big success as she currently has 2 million followers on TikTok compared to only 278,000 on YouTube. But Boschma said she will try her hand at making longer videos, something she’s always wanted to explore.
“Whether TikTok goes away or not, I think something will work out,” Boschma said. “I’ll find my footing elsewhere like I did on TikTok.”
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