TikTok downloads have been banned in the United States.
TikTok is making deals within the United States right now to shut down operations last night, on September 20, 2020, due to national security concerns. However, despite the concerns within America, they fail to acknowledge the growth in TikToks market worldwide – in many countries, this app is spreading like a wildfire.
Europe announces that this month, they hit 100 million active TikTok users across the countries it has officially been launched such as the U.K. Italy, France, Spain, Russia and Germany.
TikTok’s European leader, Rich Waterworth stated in a blog post earlier this month that “we’ve been humbled to see how Europe has embraced TikTok during this time we’ve been here.”
He added that Europe’s Creator Fund has also launched this month, where TikTok has committed to paying their professional creators €250 over the next three years. Professional creators on TikTok are those who are using the platform to produce money.
More than 40 percent of Europe’s eligible ‘professional creators’ have signed up to the Creator Fund.
All this information has been released by Europe within a month of the US announcing they had reached 100 million users. Yet, this is not the only interesting part of the timing of these announcements.
These European announcements demonstrate just how important the region may become to ByteDance, TikTok’s owner. Even more importantly, how the success in European countries can help balance out the future of the app in other countries such as the US.
ByteDance – and TikTok – are facing severe backlash by the American government, yet this is not the only region in which they are facing tough conditions. India, their second-largest market, has banned the app.
They also do not have any prospective champions or buyers within the region that can help them with the difficult situation within India.
Until last week, the United States was considering three options for TikTok. The first option was shutting down TikTok in the US altogether. The second required TikTok to sell their company in whole or part, and relinquish their control of money and audience within the US to build their app. The third option was for ByteDance to fight the Trump administration at court.
In their own way, all the options the United States were considering were extremely difficult.
Despite drama in the US, TikTok appears to be continuing their business as usual.
Throughout the difficulties they are facing in the US, TikTok has been trying to continue as normal. A variety of new features have been announced and released in recent weeks, for consumers and marketers within the US and other countries.
Their new and updated features include expansions to marketing tools as well as to their size and variety of brands who can use the platform for promotional purposes. Further, TikTok has added a new feature that allows users to take a sample of another video to “quote” or share to their own audience.
This is just one of the new ways TikTok has updated how users can create and upload content that can improve their abilities to create their viral videos.
What would TikTok look like without input from their American audience?
Despite their creative new features, there is still the question of what will happen to the app without their American creators.
TikTok has seen a significant creator–base within the United States, making them the biggest market for the app in the world. And not only is the US its biggest market, but it also holds the apps biggest, highest-followed creators. Over time, the US also has the significant potential to become TikToks largest market in relation to advertising and revenue.
While it is significant that Europe has surpassed 100 million active users on the app, it comes as a tumultuous and uncertain time for the app.
Byte Dance’s decision to advertise the milestone for Europe may be their way of suggesting that they have a new market outside of the US given their decision to remove the app from the app store.
