The US forces TikTok to ‘sell itself’ if it doesn’t want to be banned. While Chinese applications are struggling with the regulatory environment, their competitors are also taking the opportunity to cause difficulties.
LTK, a shopping platform for content creators, has only 40 million users per month, compared to TikTok’s 1 billion users. According to the spokesperson, if TikTok brings in about 16 billion USD in annual revenue, LTK’s figure is several hundred million USD. In fact, not everyone knows LTK. However, after US President Joe Biden signed a bill forcing TikTok to sell itself, LTK and a series of other small social networks can take advantage of that to grow.
Currently, LTK is transforming day by day to become more like TikTok. The platform emphasizes video, allowing creators to post more in-depth content about the products they are selling, such as a clip about the difference between synthetic leather heels and real leather heels. Videos can be up to 10 minutes long and include product purchase links.
TikTok is forced to sell itself if it does not want to be banned in the US. Photo: WSJ
In recent weeks, gaming company Roblox has also introduced features that mimic TikTok to boost shopping, user and creator videos. Roblox launches a tool for users to create and edit videos, as well as a hub for posting TikTok-style clips featuring Roblox avatars (instead of real people).
They also increased e-commerce through a partnership with Walmart to sell the retailer’s products in the Roblox metaverse. This could entice Roblox’s 71.5 million daily active users, mostly young, to shop more, along with some TikTok users and creators.
Meanwhile, Amazon’s streaming service for gamers Twitch in October 2023 began allowing users to post short videos in the form of Stories like Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and TikToku. The new scrollable video feed looks a lot like TikTok’s For You page.
New features released by LTK, Roblox, and Twitch coincide with TikTok’s current turmoil, which could provide a bigger boost. TikTok has vowed to fight the possible ban in court.
However, there are some potential downsides to a future without TikTok in the US, LTK’s Venz Box said. TikTok users often discover creators on TikTok and then follow them on LTK. Without this channel, Venz Box worries that traffic to LTK may decrease.
Some analysts, including eMarketer’s Jasmine Enberg, suspect Alphabet’s YouTube and Meta’s Facebook and Instagram will benefit the most from the TikTok ban. Both could end up strengthening their social media monopoly and putting more pressure on competitors.
According to Anupam Chander, Law Professor at Georgetown University, killing one of the social networking giants is not a good thing for users. “The collapse of any major competitor is bad for consumers,” he said. “I think this is a huge disadvantage for consumers, who don’t have a significant forum for self-expression or entertainment.” Besides, TikTok being banned will increase online advertising prices on Meta and Google, causing disadvantages for advertisers.
People almost assume that if TikTok disappears, its user base will move to other platforms. However, there is another possibility, which is that people will spend less time on their phones.
“If someone doesn’t use Twitch and uses TikTok, will they automatically switch to Twitch?”, asks Tammy Madsen, a professor of management at Santa Clara University who specializes in competitive strategy. “It doesn’t happen automatically. These companies existed before TikTok, and some users are not interested in these platforms.”
(Theo Fortune)
