• Lily Sophie Maigret

  Washington editorial office

Small entrepreneurs in the US fear they will face tough times if the country bans TikTok. Many of them use the video app to market their products and services and build relationships with their customers. The US government is more critical of the app and wants TikTok to separate from its Chinese parent company, fearing spying and misuse of data. The Senate will soon have the final say. Businessmen are waiting impatiently.

“TikTok really allowed us to connect with the people we wanted to reach,” says Mark Fuqua, owner of a scented candle company in New York. In a Brooklyn apartment, he and Erica Lu pack thousands of candles a month. They never dared to dream that the company would achieve good results. “We started very modestly making candles in our kitchen.”

With TikTok, entrepreneurs gained access to the group they developed the scents for: Asian Americans. The candles contain scents that remind the entrepreneurs themselves of their Asian origins. Lychee sells better. TikTok’s strategy saved the company a lot of marketing and advertising costs initially. The startup became successful after one of its videos went viral on the platform.

While many viewers may fear for their entertainment if TikTok disappears, small entrepreneurs like Fuqua and Luo fear bankruptcy if the US government forces Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell the app. Politicians do not want data from American users to end up in the hands of the Chinese government. The House of Representatives, the US lower house, has already passed the bill.

Megan Tomasich, a digital marketing specialist, says the fear young entrepreneurs feel now is justified. “I think many small businesses will completely run out of orders and have to close their doors.”

According to Tomasic, the fact that TikTok represents fertile ground for beginners is mainly due to the personal side that entrepreneurs show on the app. It’s the authenticity that you think big companies lack. “Seeing an entrepreneur explain why they love their product and why it’s important to them makes people want to support small businesses.”

Fuqua and Luo also say that their success on TikTok is mainly due to shared experiences. “People join our adventure and also get the opportunity to experience what it means to be a small business owner,” says Fuqua. “And that’s just by watching our videos.”

TikTok knows exactly what TikTokkers want to see thanks to user data. According to marketing specialist Tomasic, this cannot be compared to other applications. “The speed at which businesses can grow on TikTok and deliver their personalized messages to consumers is truly extraordinary.”

Questions about data storage have been haunting TikTok for some time. The company attempted to gain trust in the United States through the Texas Project, which involved transferring all stored data from American users to a company in Texas staffed by American employees. But some data is still shared with the headquarters in Beijing. TikTok says this was necessary to further develop the algorithm.

The TikTok forced selling bill may not have been passed yet, but it has already been passed Interested American investors. One of them is Steven Mnuchin, who served under President Trump He was the Minister of Finance. When he announced his interest in the app, it raised eyebrows because Mnuchin had previously campaigned aggressively against TikTok.

It is not yet clear when the Senate will vote on the bill. It is also uncertain whether the proposal will get there.

TikTok itself and its American content creators In any case, feed diligently campaign To convince people of the importance of the application. In a commercial from the platform, one user says: “Think of the five million small business owners who rely on TikTok to provide bread for their families.”

Without TikTok, the future doesn’t look bright for many young entrepreneurs, says marketing expert Tomasic. “It’s not the same on Instagram, YouTube, or Facebook. It’s a difficult transition that many small business owners can’t handle.”