US TikTok stars, marketers brace themselves for app's exit in days

Without US court intervention, the popular app will be banned on Jan 19

- Sapna Maheshwari

The impending disappearance of TikTok, one of the most popular social media apps in the United States, has sent marketers, agencies and creators racing to embrace alternatives, even if they're not entirely convinced that TikTok will, in fact, exit the United States in January.

Marketers are shifting dollars to Instagram and amending their contracts with social media stars so they aren't stuck paying for sponsored TikTok posts in the app's absence. Creators are pleading with fans to follow them elsewhere while collecting their email addresses to connect on other platforms. And talent agents are telling TikTok stars to hit pause on buying a house or car for now.

"I'm just hitting 30 million followers, and 10 days from now, I might lose it all," said Mr. Joe Mele, 26, a TikTok star from Long Island, New York, who started posting jokes when he was a college freshman. "It's a little scary."

TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, is trying to overturn a law, signed by President Joe Biden in April 2024, that calls for ByteDance to sell the app to a non-Chinese company or face a ban in the United States on Jan 19. TikTok has claimed a sale is impossible and challenged the law as unconstitutional. It was scheduled to make its last legal argument in the case on Jan 10 before the Supreme Court, after losing its case in a lower court.