• The Supreme Court has agreed to hear TikTok's case against a forced sale or ban.
• It may be TikTok's last hope at staying in the US, as it lost its case in the DC Circuit.
• President-elect Donald Trump may also try to save TikTok, though his options are limited.

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear oral arguments on January 10 around the TikTok divest-or-ban law. It could be TikTok's last hope of maintaining a presence in the US.

TikTok is challenging an April bill passed by Congress that required its owner, ByteDance, to divest from its US app or see it removed from app stores on January 19.

Congress has called TikTok a national security risk because its parent company is based in China, a country the US government views as a foreign adversary. US officials worry that TikTok could be used as a propaganda tool by the Chinese Communist Party. Members of Congress are also concerned that TikTok's US user data could end up in the hands of the CCP. TikTok has previously said that it does not share information with the Chinese government and relies on a US-based team to moderate content "independently from China."

TikTok filed a lawsuit against the legislation in the DC Circuit Court in May, arguing that it violated its users' First Amendment rights. The company lost its case earlier this month and filed an appeal to the Supreme Court, requesting an injunction to stop enforcement of the law until it can argue its case to the highest court. The Supreme Court has not yet agreed to pause enforcement of the law, though oral arguments will start before the ban is set to take effect.

It's not clear that the Supreme Court will be any more favorable to TikTok than the DC Circuit Court judges. In a recent report, Matthew Schettenhelm, a senior litigation analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, gave the company a 20% chance of reversing its loss at the Supreme Court.

If the Supreme Court opts not to rescue TikTok, Donald Trump may still try to, though his options are limited. The incoming president met with TikTok's top executive, Shou Chew, on Monday, and said during a press conference that day that he would "take a look at TikTok" and had "a warm spot in my heart for TikTok."

If TikTok is pulled from app stores in early 2025, it would disrupt the businesses of some creators who rely on the app to make money. While many creators have built audiences on other short-video platforms like YouTube shorts and Instagram reels, TikTok is still the main hub for some talent. E-commerce sellers that lean heavily on TikTok's feature Shop will also have to pivot in the wake of a ban.

"A ban would be detrimental to up-and-coming creators and small businesses that rely solely or primarily on the app," Jasmine Enberg, the vice president and principal analyst at EMARKETER, told BI earlier this month. "Big brands and established creators would also be disrupted, but can better withstand the upheaval as they're more likely to have diversified their channels and have large, engaged audiences on other platforms."

• 2024 has been a solid year for creator-economy fundraising.
• Creator startups focused on AI, e-commerce, influencer marketing, and newsletters drew in dollars.
• These 17 startups raised at least $10 million in 2024 — totaling over $900 million.

Money is still flowing in the creator economy, even as the investor hype cycle has died down.

In 2024, 17 creator startups raised at least $10 million in new funding, totaling over $900 million. A large amount of that investment went toward creator companies whose work overlaps with trendy categories, such as artificial intelligence or social shopping. But tried-and-true business models like influencer marketing and newsletter subscriptions also scored new rounds.

"For the second year in a row, the trends kind of stayed the same. AI, community, and revenue diversification for all creators," said Ollie Forsyth, a former senior manager at the investment firm Antler who now writes the newsletter New Economies.

Startups that offer automated dubbing, AI editing, or generative AI features — such as Captions, ElevenLabs, and OpusClip — all raised hefty rounds this year. Social-commerce startups like ShopMy and Levanta captivated venture firms, alongside newsletter companies like Beehiiv, Workweek, and Substack.

A few startups — Agentio, Beehiiv, and Captions — that raised capital in 2023, when creator-economy investments were at a low ebb, also raised again in 2024. Meanwhile, some venture firms have consistently tapped into the creator space, such as AlleyCorp, Inspired Capital, and Volition Capital.

Investor interest in the creator economy surged when social-media consumption spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic, but then fell off dramatically. It's now steady, Forsyth said.

"We're no longer in the hype cycle," he said. "Maybe it has lost its trendiness a tiny bit, but it's stabilizing, which is needed."

Business Insider worked with data providers PitchBook and Crunchbase to sort through fundraising data in order to highlight big creator startup rounds from 2024. We focused on companies whose products significantly impact the businesses of creators and their partners.

Here are 17 of those companies, listed in alphabetical order:

1. Agentio, an ad platform streamlining creator-brand marketing on YouTube, raised a $12 million Series A. The round, announced in November, was led by Benchmark and included returning investors Craft and AlleyCorp (the latter firms co-led Agentio's $4.25 million Seed investment last year). Agentio's Series A is being used to scale the startup's go-to-market teams and expand its product offerings beyond YouTube creator ads.

2. Beehiiv, a newsletter platform competing with Substack, raised a $33 million Series B this year — $32 million from venture capital investors like Lightspeed Venture Partners, New Enterprise Associates, and Sapphire Ventures, and $1 million from a crowdfund. Beehiiv will use the money to expand hiring, build its ad network, and continue its M&A strategy (the startup acquired Typedream in May).

3. Cameo, a video shout-out platform for celebrities and creators, raised $28 million with participation from Kleiner Perkins, Valor Siren Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst, and cofounders Steven Galanis, Devon Townsend, and Martin Blencowe. The aim of the raise was to build out Cameo for Business, an offering focused on connecting its creators with brands for promotional content, per a company spokesperson.

4. Already on its Series C round after launching in 2021, AI video startup Captions closed a $60 million round in July led by Index Ventures. The round included returning investors like A16z and Sequoia Capital, as well as new investments from Adobe Ventures, HubSpot Ventures, and Jared Leto. Captions will use its funding to grow its machine learning team and in-house research, and also shared plans to invest $100 million into generative video research.

5. ElevenLabs closed an $80 million Series B round at the start of the year, led by A16z, Nat Friedman, and Daniel Gross. Other firms, like Sequoia Capital, Smash Capital, and SV Angel, joined the round. The startup announced at the time that the raise would be used to "refine" its products and safety measures in the deployment of AI.

6. Flip, a social-shopping platform set up in a TikTok-like feed, raised $144 million in a Series C round led by Streamlined Ventures with participation from advertising firm AppLovin, the companies announced in April. Flip planned to integrate marketing tech from AppLovin as part of the deal.

7. Infinite Reality, a tech company that owns talent-management firm TalentX, Drone Racing League, and other holdings, closed a $350 million fundraise from an undisclosed family office, the company said. The investment was meant to support efforts in hiring, with a focus on tech and product, as well as allow the company to pursue M&A opportunities.

8. Influur, an influencer-marketing platform, closed a $10 million Series A in November, led by Point72 Ventures and HTwenty Capital. The startup will use its funding to develop products like AI tools to help brands predict campaign performance and fintech tools for its users.

9. Levanta, an affiliate-marketing company that connects Amazon sellers with creators and other affiliates, raised $20 million in a Series A round led by Volition Capital. The company said the round would help it grow its business development team and improve its user experience.

10. OpusClip, an AI video editing platform that helps creators turn long videos into short clips, closed its Series A in April, bringing total funding to $30 million, per the company. Millennium New Horizons led the startup's Series A with participation from other investors like AI Grant, DCM Ventures, Samsung Next, GTMfund, and Alpine VC, among others. The company said it plans to use the funding to build its products and grow its team.

11. Passes, a subscription and memberships platform for creators, raised a $40 million Series A round in February from Abstract Ventures, Crossbeam Venture Partners, and individuals like Alexandra Botez, Emma Grede, and Michael Ovitz. The funding will be used for hiring and product, CEO Lucy Guo told BI.

12. Podcastle, a content-creation platform for podcasters, closed a $13.5 million Series A round led by Mosaic Ventures, with participation from returning investors Sierra Ventures, RTP Global, and Point Nine, among others. The company is using the funding to expand its AI and video products and grow its team with a new base in London.

13. ProRata.ai, a startup focused on helping creators and media firms get compensation for contributing to generative AI products, raised $30 million in a rolling Series A that closed in Q4, led by Mayfield Fund and other investors like Revolution Ventures, Prime Movers Lab, and Calibrate Ventures.

14. ShopMy, an affiliate and influencer-marketing company, raised an $18.5 million add-on to its Series A in March, closing the round at $26.5 million. The startup previously told BI that it raised from firms like Inspired Capital and AlleyCorp to grow the platform and attract more brand and creator partners.

15. Slushy, an adult-content platform competing with OnlyFans, raised a $10.2 million seed investment that closed in June. The round included investments from The Chainsmokers' Mantis VC, Electric Feel Ventures, and individuals like Jon Oringer (the former CEO of Shutterstock) and Sean Rad (the former CEO of Tinder). Slushy will direct its new funds toward developing its product, onboarding more content creators to the platform, and expanding into new markets.

16. Substack closed an investment round of about $10 million (the company directed BI to Axios' reporting on the matter) in the fall. Substack recently announced that it had 4 million paid subscriptions on its platform. It has worked to ramp up in-person events this year.
17. Workweek, a business-focused newsletter startup, announced a $12.5 million Series A round in June led by Next Coast Ventures. It's using the investment to build out a professional networking service for Workweek's subscribers.

• A panel of judges ruled that a law forcing the sale or ban of TikTok in the US is constitutional.
• The panel heard arguments about national security and the First Amendment.
• The case is likely to be appealed to the Supreme Court. Once in office, Trump may also intervene.

TikTok's future in the US is looking dimmer.

A three-judge panel from the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled on Friday that a law designed to force a TikTok sale or ban is constitutional.

Congress passed the law, called the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, in April. The law makes it illegal for companies like Apple and Google to host apps owned by a foreign adversary that permit users to "create an account or profile to generate, share, and view text, images, videos, real-time communications, or similar content."

It identified TikTok and its owner, ByteDance, as covered companies. ByteDance operates in China, which the US has deemed a foreign adversary.

The law gave ByteDance until January 19 to either divest itself of TikTok's US assets or be booted from app stores.

TikTok challenged the law in May, arguing that it violated its users' First Amendment rights. Its argument failed.

"The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States," the court ruling says. "Here the Government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary's ability to gather data on people in the United States."

TikTok said in response to the ruling on Friday that the law amounts to government censorship of the over 170 million Americans who use the app.

"The Supreme Court has an established historical record of protecting Americans' right to free speech, and we expect they will do just that on this important constitutional issue," TikTok said.

Why did the US government target TikTok?

US officials in both parties have worried that the app poses a national security risk because of its Chinese owner. Some have raised concerns that ByteDance could be required to pass along US user data to the Chinese Communist Party, as mandated by a national intelligence law. Members of Congress have also said they fear that TikTok could be used as a propaganda tool to push narratives favorable to the CCP.

TikTok has said it doesn't share information with the Chinese government and emphasized that its content moderation is managed by a US-based team that "operates independently from China."

TikTok is likely to appeal the decision, and it may end up in front of the Supreme Court. If the Supreme Court upholds the ruling, TikTok may have a savior in President-elect Donald Trump.

Trump once tried to ban TikTok, but he's since flip-flopped and said he'd try to rescue the app once in office.

Legal experts previously told BI that the incoming president could instruct his Justice Department to not enforce the divest-or-ban law, or make a claim that it simply doesn't apply to TikTok. Both strategies may be tough to defend against a legal challenge, particularly if the Supreme Court rules against TikTok.

Trump could also try to broker a sale of TikTok to a new owner that isn't tied to a foreign adversary.

ByteDance has said it wouldn't sell TikTok's US assets, but it may be more open to the idea if other options are off the table.

Some members of Congress seem to prefer a sale. Rep. John Moolenaar, the chairman of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, told BI in November that the Trump administration would "have a unique opportunity to broker an American takeover of the platform, allowing TikTok users to continue to enjoy a safer, better version of the app free from foreign-adversary control."

• Social shopping finally broke through in the US in 2024, driven by TikTok Shop.
• Companies spent years trying to import social-commerce habits from Asia, with varied success.
• The US market is still dominated by Amazon, but social apps and influencers are key players.

Social platforms have spent years trying to get Americans to buy stuff from videos, posts, and livestreams. That bet seems to finally be paying off.

The 2024 holiday sales from social media — driven by TikTok Shop and influencer affiliates, among other factors — show how far social shopping has come in the past five years.

TikTok Shop, which had its official wide launch in the US in September 2023, reported $100 million in single-day US sales on Black Friday this year, triple what it drove in 2023. Americans viewed over 30,000 TikTok shopping livestreams that day, with one creator picking up $2 million in sales from a single session.

The company's holiday gold rush didn't come easily. TikTok and its owner ByteDance have spent years investing in its e-commerce business, even as competitors like Instagram have pulled back on shopping features.

TikTok began testing out social-commerce features in the US as early as 2020 when it let creators add shopping buttons to some videos. It began rolling out its more advanced product, Shop, in the US to a group of merchants and agencies in November 2022 after testing in other markets like the UK. It's since built out its own order fulfillment program, enlisted hundreds of outside partners to train merchants and creators on how to sell in-app, and recently began connecting creators with manufacturers to build their own products.

TikTok likely wants to replicate some of the success of its sister app in China, Douyin, which drives hundreds of billions in sales annually, often via influencer livestreams. While TikTok's numbers are comparatively small, the company has made a ton of progress this year, social-commerce executives told Business Insider.

Max Benator, the CEO of the social-shopping agency Orca, said he expects to hit just under $100 million in total gross merchandise value, or GMV, in 2024 across the company's clients, a roughly 10X increase from 2023.

"We've now been on TikTok Shop since the very beginning, and we've seen successes gradually and consistently increase month over month," Benator told BI. "The numbers are serious."

Outlandish, a TikTok Shop agency that recently opened a livestreaming hub in Santa Monica, said its Shop sellers earned $48 million in US sales in November, up from $20 million in October. The company is betting that live shopping will continue to gain traction in the US, as it has in more mature social-commerce markets like China.

"It's QVC on steroids," Outlandish's founder and CEO William August told BI.

Affiliate marketing from influencers and others drove a fifth of Cyber Monday sales revenue

TikTok Shop's holiday performance was impressive for an e-commerce newcomer, but its business remains a small piece of overall holiday sales.

Total online Black Friday sales in the US hit $10.8 billion this year, up about 10% from 2023, according to Adobe Analytics. Online sales in the US between November 1 and December 2 reached $131.5 billion, and  hit $13.3 billion on Cyber Monday alone.

Retailers like Amazon, Walmart, and Target continue to dominate much of online spending, but social-media influencers and other affiliate marketers are playing an increasingly important role in driving purchases on those platforms.

About 20% of US e-commerce revenue on Cyber Monday arrived via affiliate or other promotional links, a 7% year-over-year increase from 2023, per Adobe Analytics.

Outside TikTok and affiliate marketing, other influencer-focused platforms are also reporting meaningful sales volume this year. Live shopping platform Whatnot said in November that it had surpassed $2 billion in year-to-date livestream sales, for example.

TikTok and its partners are proving that US consumers are willing to adjust shopping habits

When TikTok and competitors like Instagram and YouTube first began testing e-commerce features in the US, not all consumers were psyched.

Social media is for entertainment, not shopping, some said. Amazon and other big retailers have long dominated e-commerce, and changing consumer habits is a challenge. Instagram backpedaled on its shopping product last year, removing its Shop tab in February 2023 and eventually partnering with Amazon for its in-app shopping strategy.

But TikTok kept charging forward with social shopping. It enlisted an army of agency partners and livestream coaches to accelerate the adoption of Shop and flooded its feed with videos of creators hawking goods in exchange for a commission.

TikTok's owner ByteDance was likely behind the company's determination to make social shopping work as it sought to bring Douyin's success to TikTok.

Now that live shopping and social commerce are beginning to take hold in the US, TikTok and ByteDance's push into the category is paying off (though it all could fall apart if TikTok ends up being banned in January due to a divest-or-ban law).

"This is the year that we've seen the real beginning of live shopping in America," said Julian Reis, the CEO of SuperOrdinary, a social-commerce agency that's worked with TikTok and Douyin. "With TikTok, we've had the first real foray into building an ecosystem that ties in entertainment and live shopping together, and a full-service ecosystem that brings in the creators, the affiliates, the products, the brands altogether."

• Influencers and other affiliates drove about 20% of US Cyber Monday revenue, per Adobe Analytics.
• Posts with affiliate links were six times as likely to lead to a sale as other social content was.
• Social shopping has been on the rise in the US, as platforms like TikTok lean into e-commerce.

Influencers are helping to boost sales this holiday season — and getting paid to do so.

Social-media influencers and other content makers that recommend products via affiliate links helped drive about 20% of US e-commerce revenue on Cyber Monday, according to new data from Adobe Analytics. That's a roughly 7% year-over-year increase from 2023, the company said.

Affiliate linking is a marketing strategy where a figure of influence, such as a TikTok star or a product-review writer at Wirecutter, shares an item and earns a commission if someone buys it via a referral link.

Adobe Analytics found that products promoted via an affiliate link were six times as likely to lead to a purchase compared to content posted on social media by a brand or user that did not contain an affiliate-marketing or comparable promotional link.

This suggests that professional product endorsers are more effective at driving sales than other social-media users, Taylor Schreiner, a senior director at Adobe Digital Insights, told Business Insider.

"We're bombarded with information from all sorts of different channels, and people are finding that a recommendation from another brand they trust, be it an individual or a broader one, is of a lot of value to them in this attention-sapped environment," Schreiner said.

Affiliate marketing has become an increasingly important tactic for driving e-commerce sales as more consumers, and young shoppers in particular, turn to bloggers and other digital creators to decide what to buy. Fifty-two percent of 18- to 29-year-olds said their purchase decisions were influenced by social-media creators either somewhat or very often, per a YouGov survey conducted in December 2023.

Companies like Amazon, Walmart, and LTK have spent years building affiliate programs to compensate creators who drive sales.

LTK cofounder and president Amber Venz Box told BI that the company's creator partners were "able to earn a commission on pretty much every product that they're talking about, featuring, and using in their own lives." LTK said its creators drive billions in retail sales annually.

Social shopping has generally been on the rise this year, as platforms like TikTok introduce more robust e-commerce features, including live shopping. TikTok Shop drove over $100 million in single-day sales on Black Friday, a company spokesperson said.

Overall, consumers spent a total of $13.3 billion on e-commerce in the US on Cyber Monday, a 7.3% increase from the previous year, Adobe Analytics reported. Online spend for the five-day period between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday reached  $41.1 billion. For its estimates, Adobe said it analyzes commerce transactions online across over 1 trillion visits to US retail sites and 100 million unique products, or SKUs.

• TikTok Shop saw over $100 million in single-day sales on Black Friday, a spokesperson told BI.
• Creators and sellers hosted over 30,000 livestream sessions during the day.
• TikTok has been pushing e-commerce this year as it tries to break into a market dominated by Amazon.

TikTok's second Black Friday in the US shows it's starting to drive real holiday spending, even though it remains a small fraction of overall e-commerce activity.

On Friday, the company drove over $100 million in US sales on its e-commerce platform Shop, a company spokesperson told Business Insider. Shoppers tuned into over 30,000 live-selling sessions on the app that day, with the content creator and Canvas Beauty founder Stormi Steele earning $2 million in a single livestream, the spokesperson said. A representative for Canvas Beauty confirmed the livestream figure and said the company sold over 100,000 products and grossed more than $3 million across all sales during Black Friday.

Live shopping is a major focus at TikTok. The company has been pushing its sellers and creators to test out the format, which drives billions in sales in more established social-shopping markets like China.

Nico Le Bourgeois, TikTok Shop's head of US operations, told BI in late October that he hoped live shopping would break through this holiday season.

"We want people to discover new products," Le Bourgeois said. "To be surprised. To feel like shopping can be different. And as a part of that, if we can have many customers shop in live and realize that this is really cool, I think we will have done a good job."

The most popular Black Friday product categories were fashion, beauty, and home, the TikTok spokesperson said. Other top sellers on TikTok Shop's Black Friday were Tarte Cosmetics and lifestyle retailer Miniso, they added.

Overall, TikTok's sales were a small piece of the holiday shopping pie. Black Friday sales in the US hit $10.8 billion on Friday, a roughly 10% increase from 2023, according to Adobe Analytics.

Last year, across the full US holiday shopping season, Amazon drove around $104 billion in US holiday sales, while Walmart hit about $20 billion in US e-commerce sales during that holiday period, according to eMarketer estimates.

TikTok Shop is still a relative newcomer in the e-commerce world, having launched in the US in the fall of 2023. Established retailers like Amazon, Walmart, and Target, which offered millions of holiday deals throughout November, likely drove a good chunk of overall US Black Friday activity.

Still, TikTok has been gaining traction in the US in recent months, particularly among young adults. The company invested heavily in its product over the last two years. Its parent company, ByteDance, likely hopes to replicate the social-shopping success of TikTok's sister app in China, Douyin, which drives billions in annual sales.

TikTok did not release US Black Friday sales data last year. But sellers told BI that some smaller and midsize brands saw big returns during the holiday event, while some larger brands were hesitant to test out a new platform during a critical earnings period.

In 2024, TikTok appears to have drawn in a wider variety of sellers to join its holiday push, which runs between November 13 and 28. TikTok Shop featured holiday discounts from brands like electronics maker Phillips, Fenty Beauty, and Maybelline NY, for example.

Ultimately, TikTok's e-commerce momentum could be abruptly cut off if the company ends up being sold or removed from app stores in early 2024 due to a law set by Congress that comes due in January.

• TikTok could be pulled from US app stores as early as January 19.
• Without a last-minute sale or presidential or Supreme Court intervention, TikTok's US future is dim.
• Business Insider is tracking TikTok's battle for survival as its US divestment deadline nears.

TikTok could soon be gone from the US.

Congress passed a law in April that set a nine-month deadline for TikTok's owner, ByteDance, to divest from the app or be booted from US app stores. The US government is on track to force the app out on January 19, the day before Donald Trump takes office. There's a possibility that President Joe Biden could extend that deadline by 90 days, but he hasn't said he will.

So will a TikTok ban actually happen?

Many of the app's stakeholders are acting as if it won't. TikTok employees, business partners, and creators are going about their business largely as usual, even with a divestment deadline looming. Some may expect the ban attempt to fail, as it has in the past.

Read more about why TikTok's main constituents aren't panicking about a ban.

TikTok has faced threats of banishment at both the state and the federal level before, and judges have repeatedly struck down ban attempts following legal challenges.

It challenged the divest-or-ban law in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, but the three-judge panel ruled against the company in December. That outcome was expected, as September oral arguments didn't go well for the company and judges in the DC Circuit tend to be deferential to Congress on issues of national security, even in cases where Americans' First Amendment rights are at stake, legal experts previously told Business Insider.

"The First Amendment exists to protect free speech in the United States," the ruling says. "Here the Government acted solely to protect that freedom from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary's ability to gather data on people in the United States."

While there is bipartisan support in Congress for a TikTok ban, support for a ban is fading among the American public. In a Pew Research Center survey of US adults from July and August, about one in three respondents (32%) supported a government ban, down from 50% in March 2023.

If the courts don't save TikTok, will Trump?

On December 9, TikTok filed an emergency motion for an injunction to stop the ban until its "appeal of the decision by the Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit is heard by the US Supreme Court." That motion was denied on Friday by the court, leaving it to the Supreme Court to decide TikTok's fate.

On Monday, TikTok filed an emergency request to the Supreme Court for an injunction against enforcement of the law. The court has agreed to hear oral arguments on January 10. Besides the Supreme Court, TikTok may have another path to survival.

Trump has said he would try to save TikTok once in office, a flip-flop from his position during his first presidential term. He met with TikTok's CEO Shou Chew on December 16, and said during a press conference that day that he would "take a look at TikTok" and had "a warm spot in my heart for TikTok."

Legal experts previously told BI that Trump could try a few tactics to keep TikTok around, including telling his Justice Department not to enforce the divest-or-ban law or attempting to skirt it through strategic interpretations of its text. Both strategies would be tough to pull off, however.

"Because the law was enacted by Congress, I'm not sure how much wiggle room a future Trump administration would have to ignore it," G.S. Hans, a clinical professor of law at Cornell Law School, previously told BI.

Read more about the obstacles facing Trump if he decides to try to rescue TikTok.

Trump could also try to broker a sale of TikTok's US assets to a non-Chinese company, a remedy prescribed in the divest-or-ban law. ByteDance has previously said it wouldn't sell TikTok, but it could be the simplest option for keeping the app around in the US.

A TikTok sale seems to be the preferred path forward among some members of Congress. Rep. John Moolenaar, the chair of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, told BI in a statement that the Trump administration "will have a unique opportunity to broker an American takeover of the platform, allowing TikTok users to continue to enjoy a safer, better version of the app free from foreign adversary control."

The Chinese government may block ByteDance from selling TikTok's US assets, and a TikTok sale could become a bargaining chip in larger US-China trade negotiations.

Why TikTok is a main character in the US-China trade wars

Government officials have been worried about TikTok's growing influence in the US for years.

Its owner, ByteDance, is based in China, a country the US has deemed a foreign adversary. This has sparked fears among some officials that the company could be compelled to hand over sensitive US user data from TikTok to the Chinese Communist Party. Some members of Congress have raised concerns that TikTok could be used as a CCP propaganda tool.

TikTok has previously said that it does not share information with the Chinese government and that its content-moderation efforts are run by a US-based team that "operates independently from China."

Other companies may also become targets of the divest-or-ban law

TikTok may not be the only company under threat come January.

ByteDance owns several other apps, such as its video-editing tool, CapCut, and Pinterest-like app, Lemon8, that could also be subject to the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.

The bill's text specifically names TikTok and ByteDance as covered companies. But its language is fairly broad and could affect any company that is owned by a foreign adversary and permits a user to "create an account or profile to generate, share, and view text, images, videos, real-time communications, or similar content" (i.e., social media).

The bill's framework excludes platforms where users "post product reviews, business reviews, or travel information and reviews," however, which suggests that the Chinese e-commerce platforms Shein and Temu would remain safe.

• Triller hired former TikTok product head Sean Kim to run its video app and a few other subsidiaries.
• Former T-Mobile marketing exec Kevin McGurn will no longer join as CEO of all of Triller Group.
• Triller went public in October via a reverse merger with Hong Kong-based AGBA Group Holding Limited.

Triller, a media and marketing company that once positioned itself as a competitor to TikTok, announced it's hiring former TikTok product head Sean Kim to serve as CEO of its video app.

The move comes as Triller plans the next chapter of its short-video app. It could enter 2025 in a much different competitive landscape if TikTok ends up being banned in the US.

Kim joins Triller after serving as chief product officer and president at the creator-monetization platform Kajabi. Starting on December 2, he will oversee the Triller app, a short-video platform that functions similarly to TikTok, Instagram reels, and YouTube shorts. He will also preside over a few other Triller holdings, including its influencer-marketing platform Julius, its fan engagement tool Fangage, and its AI engagement business Amplify.ai, a company spokesperson told Business Insider.

Kim will not be the CEO of Triller Group, the holding company that owns those four products as well as a text-marketing tool called Cliqz, an audience analytics platform called CrossHype, an events platform called Thuzio, and a combat-sports streamer called TrillerTV, among other businesses.

The Triller Group CEO title was meant to go to former T-Mobile marketing executive Kevin McGurn, as announced by the company in October. But he will no longer be joining Triller, the spokesperson told BI. They declined to comment on why but said an interim CEO would be named in December. McGurn did not respond to a request for comment.

The road ahead for the Triller app

Kim arrives at Triller at an interesting moment for its namesake app.

First, there are a lot more investor eyeballs on Triller Group after it went public in October through a reverse merger with AGBA Group Holding Limited, a Hong Kong-based wealth management and healthcare firm.

The company is still embroiled in legal proceedings tied to music-licensing agreements for its app. It pulled a lot of songs from major labels off the Triller app in late 2022 after Sony Music and Universal Music Group sued the company alleging unpaid licensing fees. Triller wrote in a recent filing that, as of December 2023, it owed $27.3 million in unpaid music license amounts. The company's challenges in accessing major-label music could be a handicap as it seeks to compete with other apps like TikTok or Instagram reels.

Kim also appears to be arriving as part of a strategy shift.

Last year, Triller said it would not try to directly generate revenue from its namesake app, writing in a 2023 SEC filing that "as a part of a reorganization and refocus of Triller's business in 2022, it was determined that the Triller App would not be a revenue generating business model."

But the firm seems to be changing course.

In its Wednesday press release around Kim's appointment, the company said it's preparing for the "next generation of Triller App" in Q1 2025 and enlisting Kim to "lead Triller App into its next chapter of expansion and creativity."

The company spokesperson said the Triller app is now front-and-center among its strategic priorities, and it hopes to achieve bottom-line profitability for the app on its own.

The competitive environment for short-video apps could be shaken up in early 2025 if TikTok ends up being banned in the US.

TikTok could be kicked out of US app stores as early as January 19 due to an April divest-or-ban bill passed by Congress that specifically targeted the company. TikTok is challenging the law in court, but it's not going great for the company. President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to keep the app around, but that may be tough to pull off.

If TikTok does leave the US, there may be an opening for Triller to recruit some of its users — a scenario the company attempted to capitalize on back in 2020 when TikTok similarly faced the threat of a federal ban.

This time, Triller has more competition, as top apps like Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube all offer popular short-video features. Triller is currently ranked 147 among photo and video apps in Apple's App Store. For comparison, Instagram and YouTube are ranked 2 and 3, respectively, in that category.

• There's a new experiential store in Los Angeles that blends livestreaming with in-person retail.
• The space features rows of hosts selling products live on TikTok Shop.
• The project is the brainchild of Outlandish, an e-commerce startup with roots in China.

Welcome to the TikTok-era shopping mall.

A new brick-and-mortar store from the e-commerce startup Outlandish is bringing to life the world of TikTok Shop. It sits on a busy street in Santa Monica's 3rd Street Promenade, wedged between a Sephora and a Chipotle.

Business Insider stepped inside the two-story emporium ahead of its Thursday opening. It features a first floor of branded stalls where a lineup of hosts sit in front of bright lights and product displays as they hawk their wares to a TikTok audience. On its second floor, visitors can shop for goods from those sellers, which include brands like Goli Nutrition and the electronics company Anker.

The aim of the store is to mix live online selling with in-person retail. Passersby can buy viral products, gawk at influencers or merchants as they sell on livestreams, or even join the QVC-style streams themselves. Products and sellers will rotate, as merchants can rent out space by the hour.

The store's Santa Monica location is in a tourist hot spot. Like TikTok livestreams themselves — which are sometimes interspersed into the app's main feed — it's likely to draw in visitors who didn't originally plan to watch livestream shopping.

On Monday, the yet-to-open space was already packed with live sellers chattering away. It was loud — there were a handful sellers simultaneously recording in one room — but it was still easy to become engrossed in watching a single host.

It's As Seen on TV, but for the TikTok generation, William August, Outlandish's founder and CEO, told BI.

"This is 'As Seen on Livestream,'" August said. "I want people that come in to not feel like they're in a studio, but to feel like they're in a space where they can pop in the livestream. They can enjoy the experience. They can grab some free samples, and they can buy in-person. That's why our livestream rooms are not blocked off."

Outlandish's live-shopping concept taps into a broader effort among e-commerce startups, like SuperOrdinary, to make the live-selling model that exploded in China and other parts of Asia take off in the US. It's a big focus among TikTok Shop merchants who use the e-commerce platform to sell goods in videos, livestreams, and a dedicated shopping tab. TikTok itself is heavily focused on making livestream shopping successful in the US. The company recently hosted a summit for partners where it emphasized live selling.

TikTok and its owner ByteDance are aiming to recreate the success of its Chinese sister app, Douyin, which drives hundreds of billions in annual product sales. Features that are successful on Douyin often get pushed to TikTok next.

In addition to TikTok Shop, Outlandish has experience working with brands to help them sell on Douyin and other social apps.

How live selling could break through in the US

TikTok Shop is still a relatively young e-commerce platform, having launched in the US a little over a year ago. But it's gaining traction quickly as users become more acclimated to buying from a social app. Content creators on the app are now driving millions in sales in single live-selling sessions, which TikTok recommends should last a minimum of two hours.

In July, TikTok Shop's US gross sales began topping $1 billion monthly, The Information reported. Outlandish said it helped its partners earn $1.2 million in sales across 1,300 livestreams in a recent four-week window, adding up to nearly 3,000 hours of live streaming.

Live-selling studios are popping up in major cities like Los Angeles and New York. TikTok has some at its offices that it makes available to partners. Outlandish aims to expand beyond Santa Monica into additional locations in Mexico and Spain in 2025.

Outlandish isn't the only company trying to merge digital shopping with brick-and-mortar. Mall of America kicked off a livestream partnership with the e-commerce platform Popshop Live in 2020, for instance. Other TikTok Shop sellers have experimented with adding livestreaming spaces to their storefronts, such as the New York-based pre-owned luxury store What Goes Around Comes Around. And companies like Amazon have envisioned repurposing mall stores to service other e-commerce functions, such as fulfillment.

"This is a whole new industry that's just getting built in the US," August said. "Very soon, it will be a massive job market as well, with a lot of people that will come into the industry, and it'll be their job to be a live host or to be a live operator or to be a live moderator."

Outlandish, which began in 2018 as a social shopping agency in China, is an official TikTok Shop partner. Many of the sellers in its Santa Monica space work with the company on other parts of their TikTok Shop strategies, such as influencer affiliate marketing. But the company also hopes to draw in local Santa Monica businesses and influencers, too.

Outlandish makes money from the space by charging management fees for its live-shopping segments. It can get a percentage cut of online sales as well. The company declined to provide information on the cost or length of its Santa Monica lease.

Its US Shop business could get upended if TikTok ends up being pulled from app stores in January, as mandated by a divest-or-ban bill passed by Congress. If that does happen, August said Outlandish's Santa Monica sellers could pivot to livestreaming on other platforms.

"If TikTok does get banned, I don't think these people are just going to stop shopping through livestreams," he said.