Jakub Porzycki | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Before Jack Nader started posting beauty videos on TikTok in 2023, he worked as Starbucks a barista in Chicago and lives at home with his parents.
But after Nader, now 21, started taking his videos seriously in April of that year, his TikTok account exploded. With more than half a million followers, he was able to generate enough income through brand sponsorships and his share of advertising revenue that he quit his job at the coffee shop and got his own apartment.
“This is my 9-to-5 job,” Nader, who said he makes between $1,000 and $12,000 a month as a creator, told CNBC. “This is what I do for a living. This is how I pay for my groceries. This is how millions of small businesses make money.”
However, Nader’s new reality is far from stable. TikTok, which is owned by China’s ByteDance, is nearing its January 19 deadline sold or threatened with ban in the US Like many other creators who have come to rely on TikTok, Nader urged his fans to find him on other social media apps before he potentially loses them entirely and the significant revenue stream they represent.
“Not everyone from my TikTok followers will come, and that’s really sad,” Nader said.
The risk to TikTok has been present for years, but then increased in April President Joe Biden signed by a law which demands that ByteDance abandon the short video app this month. If ByteDance fails to sell TikTok in time, Apple and Google they will be forced by law to ensure that their platforms no longer support the app in the US
President-elect Donald Trumpwho pushed for a ban on TikTok during his first administration, has since backtracked on the issue. Late last month, he forced Supreme Court to intervene and forcibly delay the implementation of Biden’s ban to give him time to find a “political solution.” His inauguration is on January 20.
Trump’s rhetoric on TikTok began to change after he met in February with billionaire Jeff Yass, a Republican megadonor and major investor in ByteDance who also owns a stake Social truthTrump’s social media company.
Supreme Court heard oral arguments on both sides on January 10. During the more than two-hour hearing, the judges peppered TikTok’s general counsel with questions about the app’s ties to China and seemed generally unconvinced by TikTok’s main argument, that the law infringes on the free speech rights of its millions of individual users in the US.
On Thursday, businessman Frank McCourt’s online advocacy group The Freedom Project announced that it has submitted a proposal to buy TikTok from ByteDance. Calling it “The People’s Bid for TikTok,” the group said it would restructure the app to exist on a US-owned platform and prioritize users’ digital security, although it did not disclose the terms of its bid.
Jack Nader, 21, from Chicago, is a full-time TikTok creator who began moving his content from the Chinese-owned app to Meta’s Instagram Reels and Alphabet’s YouTube Shorts.
Courtesy of Jack Nader
Judgment could come at some point. Nader isn’t waiting for a solution to figure out what’s next.
He currently downloads four or five of his TikTok videos each day to store while he migrates his content to It’s a target Instagram Reels and Alphabet YouTube Shorts. After downloading the videos, Nader re-edits them, optimizing the clips for each application.
“It took me over a year and a half to build what I have now on TikTok to make it my full-time job,” Nader said. “Now it’s about rebuilding that whole brand on another platform, which is not ideal.”
Nader said he is not yet making money from Reels or Shorts.
‘This isn’t just a dumb app’
Danisha Carter, 27, is in a similar position. A resident of Los Angeles, Carter has been a full-time creator since 2021, posting social media commentary and lifestyle videos. Although she knew about the TikTok ban for months, she said she woke up in the middle of the night in November.
“I have to start taking this seriously before I lose access to the platform I’ve built and the following I’ve built,” Carter said, recalling her panicked realization. “I don’t have to waste any more time.”
Carter, who previously worked in luxury retail, graduated her videos on TikTok telling her followers they can find her on YouTube, Instagram and Patreon.
“This is not just a funny app that people use to post dance videos,” said Carter, who earns an average of about $4,000 a month from her TikTok activity. “It’s been extraordinary in terms of changing people’s lives, changing people’s businesses.”
Danisha Carter, 27, of Los Angeles, is a full-time TikTok creator who started taking down her videos by asking her fans to follow her on YouTube, Instagram and Patreon before a Jan. 19 law banning the Chinese-owned app goes into effect.
Courtesy of Danisha Carter
TikTok may still find a way to stay operational in the US, but if the app is shut down, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram are poised to be the biggest winners, experts predict.
TikTok has about 115 million monthly active users in the US, far behind YouTube’s 258 million and Facebook’s 253 million, according to the market research firm Sensor tower. Instagram has 131 million. Short videos, which mimic clips on TikTok, are getting more viewers on those apps, accounting for about 41% of users’ time on Instagram, according to data from Sensor Tower.
Although TikTok has a smaller user base in the US and a smaller share of total advertising revenue than its biggest rivals, it is a dominant platform for creators, especially those focused on short-form content.
The influencer marketing platform HyperAuditor defines a creator as a user with over 1000 subscribers. TikTok has nearly 8.5 million people in the U.S. who fit that category, compared to about 5.2 million on Instagram and 1.1 million on YouTube, according to HyperAuditor.
Meanwhile, TikTok accounts for 9% of digital ad spending on social media platforms in the US, according to Sensor Tower, compared to 31% for Facebook, 25% for Instagram and 21% for YouTube.
If TikTok goes down, “that equates to billions of dollars potentially up in the air for competitors to grab,” Sensor Tower told CNBC in an email. Emarketer estimates that Meta and YouTube could grab about half of the redistributed dollars if the ban goes into effect.
That kind of market change has happened elsewhere. India has banned TikTok in June 2020, when the app had about 150 million monthly users in the country. A year later, Instagram’s monthly active users in India grew by 20%, while YouTube’s grew by 11% year-on-year, according to Sensor Tower estimates.
“That’s when we saw the biggest spike in Reels usage ever,” said Meghana Dhar, a former Instagram executive who was at the company at the time of the ban in India. “If TikTok gets banned and creators have to bounce between YouTube Shorts and Instagram, many creators are already hedging their bets.”
At Meta, executives within Instagram scheduled a number of impromptu meetings Friday after hearing oral arguments before the Supreme Court, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC. While many inside the company had long expected TikTok to remain active in the US, Instagram executives have begun directing their teams to prepare for a potential influx of users if the ban goes through, said the person, who asked not to be named for confidentiality. .
(L-R) Sarah Baus of Charleston, SC, holds a sign that says “Keep TikTok” as she and fellow content creators Sallye Miley of Jackson, Mississippi, and Callie Goodwin of Columbia, SC, stand outside the US Supreme Court building as a court listens to oral arguments on whether to overturn or delay legislation that could lead to a ban on TikTok in the U.S. on January 10, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Andrew Harnik | Getty Images
The need for diversification
Kristina Nolan, vice president of media services at marketing agency DMi Partners, said the TikTok situation is the latest example of why social media creators should always diversify their following.
“We’re constantly reminding them to create audience depth on other platforms,” said Nolan, whose agency works with more than 50,000 creators.
In the past few weeks, DMi has seen more of its creators begin moving followers elsewhere in various ways, Nolan said. But they have to be careful. Nolan said some creators worry that TikTok will “shadow ban” them or reduce their exposure to users if the technology recognizes they’re promoting profiles elsewhere.
Some creators will suggest followers find them on “fbook,” for example, instead of posting on Facebook. Others will drop enough words to convey a message to their followers, hoping to avoid detection by TikTok, Nolan said. Some creators partner with brands to incentivize users by holding prizes gifts for users who follow them on other apps, she added.
“They’re obviously not saying, ‘Come on Instagram,'” Nolan said. “They say, ‘Go, follow me on,’ and they babble.”
After working on a horse farm, Nealie Boschma, 27, was able to move to Los Angeles and make a full-time living as a creator after she started posting videos on TikTok in 2022.
Courtesy of Nealie Boschm
Even with numerous other options for finding a large audience, creators are concerned about trying to rebuild their business and whether enough followers will migrate with them.
“Whatever’s going to happen is going to happen, and we’re just going to take advantage of it,” said Nealie Boschma, 27, of Los Angeles, who has been living as a full-time maker since 2022. “It’s just how I have to look at it, so I don’t panic.”
Despite the potential reversal, Boschma said she sees the potential ban as an opportunity to expand her career and become more creative.
Boschma started to produce TikTok videos after quitting her job working at a horse farm, she decided to live off her savings while experimenting as a creator. Boschma’s bet on herself paid off and she earned enough to live in Los Angeles, paying for her own apartment and car.
Now she makes sure her TikTok fans see links to her other profiles so they can find her on other apps, including YouTube. If the ban goes through, Boschma said she plans to make a video specifically asking her fans to follow her elsewhere.
It will be a huge success as he currently has 2 million followers on TikTok compared to only 278,000 on YouTube. But Boschma said she will try her hand at making longer videos, something she’s always wanted to explore.
“Whether TikTok goes away or not, I think something will work,” Boschma said. “I’ll find my footing in other places, like TikTok.”
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