#012: Trump To Ban TikTok in the U.S.? Who Cares.
“We forget all too soon the things we thought we could never forget” — Joan Didion
In today’s world, so many things feel so important and as if we couldn’t live without them. For many people, social media fits into that category. But the reality is that everything that is void of true love or who we are at our core is replaceable. So how is this related to video content app TikTok? Liar-In-Chief Trump is threatening to ban TikTok in the United States. This is for a (rare) logical reason, since TikTok is owned by Chinese-based ByteDance and for years has been collecting troves of data on millions of Americans. To be more precise, TikTok has over 800 million global active users per month, with 80 million of those users based in the United States. To further show the success of TikTok, over 2 billion people have downloaded the app worldwide, with 315 million of those downloads in the first quarter of 2020 — making it the most downloaded app in a single quarter in app history.
The path for TikTok in the U.S. appears to be headed down one of three potential paths: 1) No ban or action taken against TikTok at all. This story is too big and Trump has been punk’d by TikTok too many times to subdue his campaign events or protest him, so I view this as a possible outcome, 2) The forced sale of TikTok’s U.S. operations to an American company. I view this as the most likely outcome, with the rumored buyers being Microsoft or Apple, or 3) The complete ban of the TikTok app in the United States, at least until the presidential election and the potential incoming President Biden in January 2021. I view this as the least likely outcome with where things stand right now.
Regardless of which path becomes reality, I think the end result is ultimately indifferent. TikTok is the favorite app for so many young Americans today, but the technology already exists in competitor platform Triller — which just surpassed 50 million global active monthly users and after the possible TikTok ban jumped to #1 in the App Store. This isn’t even to mention the Facebook competitor product to TikTok, which just hit the US market this week, Instagram Reels. There is no better example than in India, which banned TikTok in June 2020. In the first week following the ban, 20 million downloads of Triller came from the Indian market. The logo and color of the app on the phone changes, but the new platform becomes the ‘new normal’ incredibly quickly.
One of the good things about the free market is that a company will always step in when one stumbles — just look at the Zoom takeover of Skype at the start of the pandemic. If TikTok is sold to a U.S. company, it will certainly remain the #1 player in the market for at least the next 1-2 years ahead. But if TikTok is banned, then I would wager a bet that Instagram Reels becomes the #1 force in the U.S. market, primarily because Facebook (who owns Instagram) already has their music licensing deals in place with the major record labels and publishers. Triller still hasn’t been able to execute those deals as of now, but time will tell. The next few weeks ahead will very likely answer these unknown questions, but the end result will likely have very little effect on daily life for the Youth of America.
(1) TikTok Statistics - Everything You Need to Know [July 2020 Update]. (2020, July 14). Retrieved August 02, 2020, from https://wallaroomedia.com/blog/social-media/tiktok-statistics/
(2) Lorenz, T., Browning, K., & Frenkel, S. (2020, June 21). TikTok Teens and K-Pop Stans Say They Sank Trump Rally. Retrieved August 02, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/21/style/tiktok-trump-rally-tulsa.html
(3) Ingham, T. (2020, July 31). Microsoft in talks to acquire TikTok, say reports. Retrieved August 02, 2020, from https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/microsoft-is-exploring-an-acquisition-of-tiktok-say-reports/
(4) Louise, N. (2020, July 25). Triller hits 50 million monthly active users; surpassing TikTok when it sold to ByteDance for $1 billion: Tech News: Startups News. Retrieved August 02, 2020, from https://techstartups.com/2020/07/24/triller-hits-50-million-monthly-active-users-surpassing-tiktok-sold-bytedance-1-billion/
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JAY’S SONGS OF THE WEEK
Jerub - “That Place”
Jorja Smith - “By Any Means”
Dominic Fike - “Vampire”
Foushee - “Deep End”
Billie Eilish - “my future”
Bahari - “Waking Up The Neighbors”
