“I’m afraid” that TikTok will be banned “because I would have to start from scratch,” says Ayman Chaudhary, one of millions of content creators worried about the United States banning their favorite application.
“It’s my full-time job,” adds this Chicago resident for AFP. “It took me four years to get to this level, where I can support myself and my family.”
Washington adopted a text this week that obliges the Chinese firm ByteDance to sell TikTok within twelve months, otherwise the social network will be banned.
This “would have a devastating effect on 7 million businesses,” reacted a spokesperson for the popular entertaining video application, used by 170 million Americans.
“It’s an obstacle to our freedom of expression,” says Ayman 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.”
Passionate about reading, the 23-year-old young woman earns her living by making videos to recommend books. Its revenue comes from advertising and its sponsors, such as Spotify and Audible (audiobooks).
Arriving on TikTok during the pandemic, she began to take the application seriously a few months later, when some of her videos went viral.
“Magic of TikTok”
“I had talked about a book and all of a sudden it was out of print everywhere,” she recalls. “This shows the power that a single community on TikTok can have.”
“No other platform offers this potential to be spotted,” underlines Jasmine Enberg, of Emarketer.
“The TikTok algorithm has this unparalleled ability to surface appropriate content for each user,” explains the analyst.
The success of the application and the concerns it raises among the authorities are largely linked to its powerful algorithms.
Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat have imitated the format of short, rhythmic videos to be consumed like candy, without achieving the same level of relevance of recommendations.
“In my opinion, it is the small businesses that have not yet broken through that are likely to suffer the most,” says Jasmine Enberg.
Especially niche products. “That’s the magic of TikTok, everything sells from yoga leggings to kitchen sponges. You can go to Instagram, but the app doesn’t have the same powers in terms of virality and e-commerce.
Additionally, young adults are now using TikTok to search online.
Asked about useful applications for finding information on local brands, 67% of 18-24 year olds answered Instagram, and 62% TikTok, ahead of Google (61%), according to a study by the marketing company SOCi.
“Devastating” decision
“For example, people type in ‘bar with terrace in Dallas’,” explains Damian Rollison, a director of SOCi.
In response, instead of reading reviews, they get user videos “that give a more visceral, more concrete sense of a place.”
Despite filters and special effects, TikTok is considered more authentic than Instagram by younger audiences, including Bilal Rehman.
This 24-year-old interior designer built his business – more than 20 employees split between design, marketing and a gallery – “thanks to TikTok”, where he posts humorous videos.
“You love it when I tell you what not to do, so here are three fabrics that I would never use on a sofa,” he says on one of them, before explaining that lace, in particular, risks evoking “granny diapers”. All with a lot of facial expressions, schoolboy jokes and changes of frame.
In its first year, his company generated several million dollars in revenue.
If TikTok disappears from the United States, new orders are likely to dry up quickly, because the platform “constantly provides me with new clients and new projects,” says the Houston (Texas) resident.
Many American elected officials accuse the network of allowing China to spy on users.
But according to Bilal, “they are old people who don’t understand anything” and their decision will be “devastating for millions of people”.
