Sigh of relief for some Michigan creators as TikTok returns
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Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios
TikTok is back — good news for local content creators — after users went into the weekend with uncertainty about its future.
The big picture: The wildly popular short-form video app, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, went offline late Saturday night in advance of a Sunday ban, but was back as of Sunday afternoon.
- The app blamed the Biden administration for its shutdown and thanked President Trump for its return.
Catch up quick: A bipartisan law passed last year required ByteDance to either sell the app to a U.S. company or shut down operations by Jan. 19. The law stemmed from information and national security fears.
- Trump posted on social media Sunday promising an executive order to give TikTok more time.
- The app's future remains precarious.
State of play: Beyond disappointing avid users — how else would some of us have discovered Detroit's fascinating Bridgerton Ball snafu — the app's U.S. demise would disrupt influencers' multibillion-dollar creator economy.
Zoom in: Rashon (R. A.) Massey, who started local wellness brand Micopeia Botanica in 2019, tells Axios that TikTok's algorithm and monetization possibilities far outpace other apps in usefulness for small businesses.
- Micopeia sells medicinal teas, tinctures and other herbal goods while offering advice and recipes. It has 88,700 followers on TikTok and 151,000 on Instagram.
Between the lines: Massey earns 15-20% of revenue from social media, especially TikTok. It helped him grow his business to open a brick-and-mortar shop on the west side of the state.
- He told Axios Friday that he's used to pivoting and could adapt if the app went away — though he did not believe it would.
- For some, he says, the app is their "bread and butter" income to support family.
What they're saying: Another local content creator, chef Jon Kung, told CBS Detroit: "(TikTok) was our window into the outside world during the pandemic, and from there, so many small businesses and so many career paths had sprung out of this."
- "It's a wild time," local TikToker Colin McConnell told the Detroit News. "It's a wait and see what will happen. I don't think TikTok is going to be the same (in the future)."