Meanwhile, brands and content creators alike were downloading their data en masse in case the app becomes inaccessible as of Sunday, hoping to salvage at least some of the fruits of their labour.
One influencer, who hawks cereal and beauty products in her videos, posted on Tuesday advising her nearly 16,000 followers on how to save their videos.
“Here’s how to download your TikTok data so you don’t lose literally everything you’ve had from the past five years,” said Maria Slate, grimacing, as the words “it’s fine I’m fine” displayed over her head.
The sentiment was a marked change from the dominant mood last month, when advertisers told Reuters they were in no rush to shift their marketing budgets off TikTok despite a US appeals court upholding the law requiring a divestment or ban.
As of Jan 8, ad spending on TikTok was set to increase 57 per cent in the first two months of 2025, according to Guideline.ai, a research firm that tracks forward booking data from major ad agencies.
TikTok has become a powerful tool for advertisers looking to reach young Americans in particular in recent years, growing to 20 per cent of US social media ad spending from only 2 per cent in 2020, its first full year of operation in the United States, Guideline.ai said.
Part of that power has come from the platform’s cultivation of influencers and online shopping culture, which has made it a reliable driver of e-commerce sales.
E-Marketer, another research firm, forecast late last year that some 43.8 per cent of US TikTok users would have made a purchase on the platform by the end of 2024, a higher share than on Meta-owned services Facebook and Instagram.
