What a TikTok ban would mean for advertisers

Last Friday, the US administration announced the ban of TikTok on the grounds of national security. The ban was supposed to go into effect on Sunday but was narrowly averted through a “blessing” by President Trump for a potential deal with Oracle and Walmart. Tiktok’s U.S. operations are not quite out of the crossfire though. For marketers, this means a lot of uncertainty, begging the question: what will a ban of the app mean for the video sharing platform’s advertisement revenue? 

In June, it was expected that the company will hit $500 million ad revenue in the U.S. this year after generating $300 million last year across the entire world. However, when the first executive order was announced this summer, advertisers have already started to pull back from the platform for Q4. 

A lot of marketing experts hypothesize that the impact of the ban will be limited in the short-term, since TikTok already enjoys a large base in the U.S. In the medium to long term, however, users might reduce their time spent on the platform and seek out alternatives. Advertisers for one, have already made contingency plans and are considering other apps to allocate their marketing budgets to. Snapchat, Thriller and Byte for example could be good platforms for brands to reach younger audiences. In any case, the future of Tiktok is uncertain and many questions surrounding its future are left unanswered.