What if TikTok is banned?

TikTok says it has 170 million users in the U.S. and spends an average of 51 minutes a day on the app in 2024.

Insider Intelligence analyst Jasmine Enberg says ban TikTok or make it less usable, and it creates a huge opportunity for its big tech rivals.

“Instagram Reels owned by Meta and YouTube Shorts owned by Google are the most natural matches for displaced users, creators and advertisers,” he says.

While Ms. Enberg is the same with all Meta platforms, Facebook can also benefit. controversial politics change announced by boss Mark Zuckerberg could potentially reduce its appeal.

Users bring in advertisers – so a ban could be a huge financial boost for these platforms.

“The CMOs we spoke to confirmed that they would direct their media dollars to Meta and Google if they couldn’t advertise on TikTok — a behavior we saw in India when TikTok was banned in 2020,” said Kelsey Chickering, senior analyst at Forrester.

Lemon8, which is owned by ByteDance, would be an obvious place for people to go after the ban — but the law says that would also apply to other apps owned or operated by the firm. This means that Lemon8 will likely be made unavailable in the US as well.

Other potential winners include Twitch, which hosts live streams, a popular feature on TikTok. Although Twitch continues to grow with other content, it is especially well known to gamers.

Other platforms owned by China, Like Xiaohongshu – Known as RedNote among US users – Rapid growth in US and UK.

Still, some suggest that no existing app can really replace TikTok, especially the TikTok Shop feature, which allows users to buy products directly from videos and makes a lot of money for US creators.

Craig Atkinson, CEO of digital marketing agency Code3, said there is no direct competitor that people can easily jump to, noting that his agency signed new contracts with clients to set up TikTok Shop campaigns in late December.