The weekend was a bit of a rollercoaster ride for TikTok when users in the U.S. lost access to the app briefly. The ban, required by a bipartisan law passed in April, took effect more than an hour before the January 19 deadline. App stores had also removed access to TikTok downloads at that point. The ban required TikTok to divest its Chinese ownership and sell to a U.S. company or face a shutdown. ByteDance, the platform’s owner which has refused to pursue a sale, was saved from permanent takedown by Trump’s intervention just 12 hours after the blackout on Sunday.
The soon-to-be new U.S. president is expected to sign an executive order as soon as his inauguration to give the ban a 90-day reprieve, presumably to arrange a sale. That sale, according to Trump, will hopefully be a joint 50-50 ownership between ByteDance and a U.S. owner. Bids have already been made by a group led by billionaire Frank McCourt and Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary and another by X’s Elon Musk, which is the one said to be favoured by China. Any sale would include the app’s U.S. assets but not its algorithm.
TikTok in Canada has not been impacted by any of these machinations. When/if a U.S. sale is made, the app would have to be rebuilt so anyone wanting to access U.S. content would have to download the American version.
Robin LeGassicke, chief transformation officer at Cairns Oneil says that at this point, if TikTok is ultimately banned in the U.S., there will be a few implications for the app in Canada. “It will really be about the potential change in content, due to the lack of U.S. creators on the platform. The U.S. creators will move to alternative platforms. This could create opportunities for home-grown talent to thrive in the Canadian marketplace, however several high-profile Canadian creators rely on their U.S. audiences to make up the bulk of their audiences and therefore revenue generation.
“With less competition from the U.S., the opportunity for Canadian creators to partner with Canadian brands could be significant, provided the audiences are still on the platform and find relevant content that resonates. This could also see a rise in usage on emerging platforms or similar platforms. With U.S. and potentially Canadian creators focusing efforts on IG reels, or YouTube shorts, or the rise in popularity of RedNote as examples. The ecosystem may have some changes in share, time spent and audiences, which we will need to keep an active eye on.”
Jeremy Haft, CRO at Digital Remedy, a performance media partner for brands and agencies, says connected TV is a strong contender for ad budgets that may shift to other platforms.
“The looming TikTok ban in the U.S. is set to disrupt the advertising landscape, particularly for brands that rely on the platform’s precision targeting. While ad dollars will likely shift to other social platforms, the real winner could be Connected TV (CTV). Already projected to outpace other channels in ad spend growth in 2025, CTV offers many of the same benefits advertisers love about TikTok: precise targeting, immersive creative formats, and measurable results.”
Haft adds that, even with everything that’s happening at TikTok, many brands have been preparing for the transition for a while now. “Rising concerns about brand safety on other social platforms could make CTV an even more attractive alternative, offering a controlled, premium environment for advertisers.”