TikTok has had a hard time of it recently with a range of governments and government agencies — including some in Australia — banning the app from employee devices (lead image: TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew).
The US has even told ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, that unless it sells its stake in the US version of the app, it will be banned wholesale in the country.
But, putting aside potential national security concerns and the legions of disaffected tweens, what would a ban do for digital ad dollars?
One tech company exec told B&T that a TikTok ban would not represent a chance for businesses to be “opportunistic” in grabbing market share and ad dollars. Instead, they explained that it would give platforms “a chance to step into what [they] do well, and that is to really look at who they’ve served and how are they served? What is the good they create and [whether there] is a business model for that?”
But the exec explained that ad dollars do not represent a zero-sum game.
“If you were just looking at like whether these advertiser dollars move over there, different things drive consumers than ad dollars — you know that, I know that, we all know that. Somewhere in the middle, they overlap quite nicely.”
Another exec from the same company added that while it might seem to the outside world that the tech platforms are competing for the same limited pool of digital ad spend, this is a relatively reductive view.
They explained that while people tend to see social platforms as essentially the same, they believed TikTok was leading other platforms into a competition for lean-back entertainment and content consumption. However, there are other platforms not looking to try and engage in that war for eyeballs.
A media buying exec told B&T that this might all be a storm in a teacup.
“TikTok ad spend at the moment is not huge. It’s only maybe about 10 per cent of digital ad spend,” they explained.
While there are a lot of advertisers testing TikTok as a channel, none of their clients have managed to scale on the platform yet.
In fact, despite the brouhaha in much of the media about a potential TikTok ban (B&T included) advertisers are currently less concerned.
“I don’t think anyone truly believes that there is going to be a ban in Australia, that would be quite a hard thing to do and quite a lengthy process. But the general conversation about the ban and the banning of TikTok on government devices is actually making advertisers a little bit nervous and a bit more cautious about whether they should be on the platform,” they said.
In fact, even within the agency, staff are not worried about a ban coming to pass — whether in the US, Australia, or anywhere else.
“Generally, we kind of know where those dollars would go if something drastic was to happen but I don’t think anyone believes anything drastic is happening in this space in the coming weeks and months.
There was, however, a bit of a generational divide within the agency with older staff wanting to exercise more caution with the platform and younger staff — with Gen Z team members in particular — believing the platform to be perfectly fine.
Hopes of a ban in the US would appear to have to take a fairly significant hit after the laughable questioning directed at CEO Shou Zi Chew — with one senator asking the boss to clarify whether TikTok connected to wifi networks.
On the potential of an Australian ban, Brett Armstrong, TikTok’s general manager AUNZ said in a statement that:
“TikTok is no different to other social media apps and trusted Australian brands, that have teams around the world. All we ask is to be treated fairly, and not to be singled out in relation to any change in Government policy. There is no evidence that we are a threat to national security and we believe we have been caught up in current geopolitical tensions. We will continue to work hard to support our thousands of business partners who use the platform to connect with millions of Australians every day. We would also welcome the opportunity to meet with the government and address any concerns they may have.”
