Hello dear readers, I don’t know about the rest of you, but I for sure can go without experiencing a “once in a lifetime historic event” for the fourth or fifth time now. 

Now we can tell our grandchildren that we survived the 2008 recession, saw the election of America’s first Black president, survived a global pandemic, and now we have seen, in a surprising turn of events and a very unlikely bipartisan partnership, the U.S. Government coming together to collectively work to ban social media app Tik Tok due to national security concerns.

For those of you who don’t know, Tik Tok, is a short-form video hosting service owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from 30 seconds to 10 minutes. It was also one of the main things that many flocked to during the COVID-19 pandemic leading to over 150 million Americans using the app as of March 2023. 

It is an app that allows for the free sharing of knowledge such as small space farming, cooking, ‘life hacks’ and so much more. But did you also know that small businesses across the country have also found a life on Tik Tok? 

According to the platform, nearly 5 million small and medium sized businesses are on the app ranging from content creators to nonprofit groups to individual shops and performers.

Here in Fayetteville, there are a number of recognizable businesses and organizations trying to expand their reach online by joining Tik Tok including the Fayetteville Woodpeckers, Fayetteville Comic Con, the Fayetteville Marksmen, Fayetteville State University, and Cool Spring Downtown District. To date Shanti Wellness located in downtown Fayetteville holds the most Tik Tok followers out of local businesses at 16.9K.

All of these businesses are posting personalized content for their fans, customers and community, and with more people cutting the cable and switching to social media for entertainment and even news and community updates, apps like Tik Tok are quickly proving to be beneficial with connecting to younger audiences. 

While a full on ban has not been put into place yet, the United States currently has a ban on Tik Tok on government-issued mobile phones which officially went into effect in March.

Tik Tok Chief Executive Officer Shou Zi Chew appeared before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on March 23 to testify that the app is indeed safe and all American data is stored in America by America based tech and security companies.

The platform says it employs 7,000 Americans and Chew highlighted “Project Texas,” TikTok’s proposed plan to give the U.S. more oversight of its data and algorithms, during the hearing.

While the jury is still out on whether the app will be banned in the U.S., the impact it could have on small businesses is unknowable. Being able to find your target audience through a specialized algorithm is a new way businesses can hone in, get to know and sell to their customers.