Whatever Happens to TikTok, Big Tech Is Coming for Its Millions of Creators
Big Tech is coming for the TikTokers.
With TikTok about to be shut down after the Supreme Court upheld a ban (pending a Hail Mary from Trump or Biden), other tech companies are preparing to swoop in to poach creators and users from the video platform.
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While tech giants like Meta and YouTube have been gunning for TikTok for years, the threat of the platform’s imminent closure is a one-time chance to steal the app’s more than 170 million U.S. users, and its enormous roster of creators, many of whom had been earning a living (or at least trying to) through the service.
At the very least, the TikTok news cycle is a good excuse to see how many users can be snapped up, even as Chinese-owned apps like Red Note and Lemon8 (which is also owned by ByteDance) seem to gain some traction.
With millions of creators and users and billions of minutes suddenly becoming available, sources at multiple tech companies say that they fully intend to try and lure away as many TikTok users as possible, some with behind-the-scenes outreach to creators, and others more overtly.
Consider Snap, which is rolling out a new public marketing campaign with the tagline “find your favorites on Snapchat,” featuring several influencers who have been best known for posting on TikTok, like Loren Gray, Matt Friend, Avana Gregg and Harry Jowsey.
In one spot, Gregg tells users that “you can find all of my day-to-day content on Snapchat, it’s where I share everything from get ready with me’s to fun behind the scene moments.”
The campaign is a consumer-facing effort to try and convince TikTok users to continue following many of their favorite creators, just on a new platform.
“Snapchat has been the best and easiest platform to grow a real community, so doing this campaign was a no-brainer,” says Jowsey. “Other apps feel like they need to be heavily curated, but on Snapchat there’s no pressure and it feels like I’m talking to my friends. It’s been amazing to see how posting daily on Snapchat has helped push my podcast numbers drastically because they get to know the real me.”
But as Snapchat’s campaign highlights, the future of social video really is about the creators. Where the creators go, users will follow. So the battle for creator attention is set to pick up.
Substack, for example, is hoping to lure TikTokers to its platform with a cash prize and expanded video capabilities.
The company, which is traditionally a newsletter platform popular with journalists, writers and other creators with followings, announced a $25,000 “TikTok Liberation Prize” to users who post an original video on TikTok that inspires others to join Substack. The prize was to be given to the video or videos that gain the greatest audience traction.
“We’ve been recruiting people from all kinds of social media apps for a while on the pitch that the deal you get on these apps is not as good. You don’t own your relationship with your audience. You don’t have your own space on the internet, you are at the mercy of an algorithm that doesn’t always have your best interest at heart,” Substack CEO Chris Best says.
While Best jokes “we’re rescuing all the smart people from TikTok,” he acknowledges that Substack is not a direct replacement for the social media app, but he’s positioning it as a place where creators with devoted followings can have a direct connection with their audience.
Substack has already been adding various video features to its platform in recent years and had planned to roll out live video soon, but the looming TikTok ban pushed up the announcement, Best adds. On Jan. 14, Substack announced it would offer access to live video to all publishers, or those who have at least 10 free subscribers in the Substack app, after initially making the tool available to bestsellers starting last fall.
Substack has been seeing growing momentum in face of the possible ban. The company said that Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of this week were the top three days ever for daily active users in the Substack app.
Of course, while Snapchat and Substack are launching very public campaigns, YouTube Shorts and Meta’s Reels are the biggest players in the short-form video space after TikTok, all using algorithmic engagement to push relevant content to users, and giving the videos prime placement in their apps and on their platforms.
Meta’ CEO Mark Zuckerberg told investors on the company’s last earnings call that more than 60 percent of Reels recommendations on Instagram are now wholly original. “This is helping people find unique and differentiated content on Instagram while also helping earlier stage creators get discovered,” he said.
On YouTube, more than 70 percent of channels now upload Shorts in addition to longer-form video, with the platform also allowing for longer Shorts of up to three minutes.
But monetization remains the biggest issue. While TikTok did not have the best monetization platform, it led the field compared to its competitors when developing a following, according to one creator who had a presence on essentially all the major platforms.
According to this creator, however, YouTube was far ahead of other platforms when it came to monetizing videos, even if YouTube Shorts offered smaller payouts than normal videos.
Somewhat surprisingly, they said that after YouTube, Elon Musk’s X was among the more consistent platforms to offer payouts.
A source at X notes that the platform has made a big push into video over the last year (they say video usage on X is up 40 percent year over year), and that it sees an opportunity to attract TikTok users, given a large overlap between the platforms. According to the source, there is an 80 percent overlap between X and TikTok among Gen Z users, which is leading to the optimism that the platform can bring some of them over.
Snapchat, meanwhile, is completely revamping its monetization platform beginning Feb. 1, potentially leading to enhanced payments to creators.
The new unified monetization program will place ads within creators Spotlight videos, in addition to Stories. The new platform will make it easier for creators to be compensated for their Snaps, be there on the Spotlight platform, or the more personalized Stories option.
Substack, meanwhile, says that it is already delivering meaningful revenue to former TikTokers.
As part of its new push, Substack points to Violet Witchel, a TikToker with 2.7 million followers, and Coco Mocoe, who has 1.1 million followers on TikTok, who have brought those followers to Substack. In a recent livestream, Witchel said she had made more than six figures by sharing paywalled recipes and meal plans on Substack, while Mocoe had made $10,000 in three months on Substack with her video podcast about the creator economy. In addition to Witchel, Tiktokers V Spehar, Meredith Hayden, Leo Skepi and Tini Younger have also joined Substack.
It is not immediately clear if Meta or YouTube are planning any changes to their monetization strategies for Reels and Shorts given the TikTok situation.
But if there is one thing that everyone seems to agree on, it’s that no one knows how this will play out. Whether TikTok manages to survive — CEO Shou Zi Chew said on Jan. 17 he’ll continue to work with Trump to “find a solution that keeps TikTok available in the United States” — or if it is indeed pulled from app stores, it feels like the battle for creators, and the battle for attention, will keep on.
“I don’t think anybody knows exactly what’s going to happen with the ban, whether it happens, whether it sticks, for how long, it’s all very uncertain right now,” Best said. “And I think even that uncertainty is part of what’s making people have this moment where they want to consider ‘What platforms am I using, and how important is it to own connection with my audience?’”
Jan. 17, 11 am PST Updated following the Supreme Court’s ruling.
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