As a social media influencer who built a significant following on TikTok, I can’t help but feel a sense of unease and uncertainty about the potential ban of the app in the United States. Having started my career on TikTok back in 2017, when it was still known as Music.ly, I have seen firsthand how the platform has captivated audiences with its raw, unfiltered content and instant gratification.
Is there life after TikTok?
For U.S. influencers and small businesses, the possibility of banning the popular Chinese-owned social media app is a pressing concern, given its significant role in online culture and commerce.
For an answer, they might turn to India, which has been surviving without TikTok since June 2020.
Last month, following the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers in a skirmish at the border with China, the Indian administration requested TikTok users to share emotional farewells and direct their followers towards alternative social media platforms within a day. Subsequently, the app was temporarily shut down.
“After the ban, I was left with nothing,” said Gaurav Jain, one of India’s over 200 million TikTok users, in simpler terms.
At the age of 25, he had reached a significant milestone by gaining over a million followers on his self-help channel, where he shared content on mental health, men’s fashion, and relationships.
As a cinephile looking back on the past four years, I’ve found myself running my own social media marketing agency in Delhi. I manage a team of Indian content creators who have shifted gears and embraced new platforms or dived into the influencer world more recently. Initially, I attempted to make that transition myself, but starting anew from scratch felt overwhelming and disheartening.
“The counter became zero for everyone,” he said. “That gave rise to a lot of new creators.”
The results for former TikTok stars have been mixed.
Gautan Madhavan, founder of Mad Influence marketing agency, shared that approximately one-third of the over 300 content creators they managed before the TikTok ban successfully regained their audience on Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts within three months. Many others are still in the process of catching up.
After the ban on short-video apps like TikTok, new platforms emerged. Early adopters who gained popularity posted regularly, sometimes even up to ten times a day, as suggested by Saptarshi Ray, an influencer consultant.
Ray remarked, “The majority were experimenting with various things.” It was the innovative ones who truly thrived.
Before the ban, India was the quickest market for new users on TikTok, generating significant revenue for creators in the region.
In the US, the significance of TikTok is amplified given its substantial user base of over 170 million individuals and approximately 7 million businesses. These businesses reportedly earned $14.7 billion through marketing activities on the platform last year. According to Pew Research Center, one-third of Americans utilized TikTok in the previous year, representing a noticeable increase from the 20% who did so in the prior year.
In April, President Biden passed a law requiring ByteDance Ltd., the Chinese parent company of the app, to sell it to a buyer from a non-adversarial country by January 2025. If this doesn’t happen, then the app will be banned.
The danger arises as mistrust between the U.S. and China has grown more intense, leading to worries that TikTok might transmit confidential information to the Chinese administration.
I understand that the proposed ban for TikTok is not a done deal yet. Two significant opponents have taken legal action against it. TikTok itself, as well as a number of American content creators, are filing lawsuits, asserting that restricting access to the app infringes upon our constitutional right to free speech. The Trump administration attempted a similar move but was met with resistance from the federal courts and ultimately abandoned their efforts.
TikTok has tried to reassure the US administration that user information remains secure on American servers. Despite being owned by a Chinese corporation, TikTok transferred its management to Singapore and appointed a CEO from there.
In simple terms, the U.S., together with Britain and Australia, have restricted the usage of TikTok on official gadgets. However, some American digital marketing specialists mentioned that most users aren’t yet taking the potential ban seriously.
“According to Lawrence Vincent, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business, most TikTok users may not fully understand that the platform is being phased out. They’ve been informed about the change, but it won’t feel genuine until it actually happens.”
Few users have proactively moved to alternative platforms so far. however, Indian TikTok ex-users cautioned American users to be ready for potential difficulties.
“Gossip about this supposed occurrence didn’t hold much weight for Ashi Khanna, a 26-year-old Delhi influencer.”
I started my journey on TikTok back in 2017 when it was still called Music.ly by sharing lip-sync videos. Over time, I gained a huge fanbase of 1.7 million people. However, bidding farewell to my TikTok fans wasn’t as easy as I had hoped. I asked them to follow me on Instagram and YouTube where I already had smaller audiences. Unfortunately, only around 20,000 of my followers made the switch.
Since then, Khanna has concentrated on Instagram and managed to match her old following.
Instead of TikTok, where the focus has never been on high-quality production, I found Instagram to be all about crafting a more refined look for each reel. This often meant investing significant time and effort into creating just one reel.
As a movie enthusiast, I’ve come to realize that there’s a significant gap between different platforms when it comes to audience preferences. You can’t assume that what works on one will work on another. Instead, it’s crucial to tailor your content to each unique audience.
Ankita Chhetri, 22, who lives in Mumbai, said experimentation was the key to life beyond TikTok.
In the year 2019, she gained significant popularity on TikTok by sharing a clip of herself lip-syncing to a well-liked Bollywood tune. Now boasting an impressive following of 8.2 million people, she secured endorsement deals from music companies and reconsidered her career aspirations, abandoning her previous plans to become a nurse in favor of pursuing a path as an influencer and actor.
Following the ban, she initiated a YouTube channel and expanded her content beyond lip-syncing, creating thoughtfully curated videos on beauty, travel, fashion, and motivational messages. As her audience grew to 1.6 million, she leveraged her enhanced engagement data to propose collaborations with brands.
Still, Chhetri said there are times she misses the old days.
“TikTok boasts an extraordinary level of audience devotion, according to her,” or “She remarked on TikTok’s remarkable audience loyalty being far greater than on Instagram where users may watch and like content but are reluctant to hit the ‘follow’ button.”
Indian entrepreneurs created their own versions of TikTok, but failed to get much of an audience.
Shreyas Mendiratta, a 23-year-old hospital employee, expressed that it continued to feel as if no one was around him despite his presence, “It was as if I were unseen, uncared for.” However, on the social media platform TikTok, he discovered a sense of recognition and validation, stating, “I was seen, my voice was heard.”
I’ve noticed that his content doesn’t seem to perform as strongly on Instagram and YouTube as it does on TikTok. He mentioned that perhaps the reason for this is the narrower reach of those platforms in comparison to TikTok’s vast international audience.
As a movie buff, I’d put it this way: “I’m stuck in my location and can’t expand my reach much further on Instagram. It’s a daily struggle for me.”
Geet Jain, a motivational speaker and English instructor, found herself in the United States when India prohibited TikTok. Although she was able to continue using the app, her 7 million Indian followers were unable to view her content, which included posts offering relationship advice, humor, and English instruction. (Or: Geet Jain, an inspiring speaker and English educator based in India, faced a setback when TikTok was banned in her country while she was visiting the U.S. Consequently, although she could still create and post content on the app, her 7 million followers in India were unable to access it, which included material on relationship advice, comedy, and English instruction.)
English lesson from Geet Jain on social media (Courtesy of Geet Jain)
I found myself in a whirlwind of confusion, unsure of my next steps. (First person perspective)
On Instagram, her follower base expanded from 68,000 to an impressive 1.3 million. However, this rate of expansion wasn’t consistently replicated. A portion of her TikTok audience struggled to locate her presence on other platforms.
I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to return to the United States this year for an extended visit with my beloved sister in Seattle. And you know what? I’ve been rediscovering my love for social media, specifically TikTok! It’s been such a joy to connect with old friends and make new ones through this creative platform. Each day brings a new adventure, and I can’t wait to share my experiences with all of you. Let’s make the most of this time together!
She’s lost touch with her audience’s preferences now. Videos are longer and feature more conversational storytelling instead of the dance and lip-sync performances she used to deliver. The educational content market has grown more competitive as well.
She’s hesitant to put much effort into creating more English videos for TikTok, as some of them have already gained popularity but not enough to justify extensive investment.
As a movie reviewer, I’d put it this way: “If this film is banned in the United States, I’ll be deeply affected. It means the end of my access to it.”
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2024-07-18 21:43