- U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that could ban the TikTok app throughout the country
- Lawmakers fear the app is a threat to national security
- Small businesses have poured a lot of time into marketing on TikTok the last few years. There's concern they could lose a particular audience.
U.S. House of Representatives has a passed a bill that could ban the TikTok app.
The bill states that if passed, TikTok would have five months to separate itself from its Chinese parent company ByteDance. If they don't, TikTok would be banned in all app stores in the U.S. This isn't the first time lawmakers have tried to ban the app. They believe it's a national security threat because of the possibility for the Chinese Government to obtain the information of the 150 million United States users.
Although the app has been known for it's popular dance trends, it's become a great marketing tool for small businesses.
"We like to do really fun videos, funny content, anything that we think of that could be viral or make someone laugh. We really want to make people laugh," said Levi Guzman, content creator and social media manager for Bien Merite Bakery and Restaurant.
Bien Merite has found success in being able to showcase its handmade pastries. However, it's the skits they put on that are memorable to their audience.
“Recently, we’ve been doing more lives and we’ll give away stuff on our lives. And so, when we show up at these locations wherever it may be, we’ll see people and they’ll be like we saw you on live and whoa that’s crazy,” Guzman said.
Guzman knows there's a specific audience on TikTok.
"Marketing on TikTok is different because it’s a younger audience. And, that younger audience likes to drag their parents to businesses. So it's very important for us to be on TikTok and up to date on all the latest trends," Guzman said.
"It's so short form. You can just post whatever, however silly or goofy or serious, but there's not the same kind of demand for professionalism. You can have more fun with it," said Carlos Cooper, owner of Hybrid Records.
Hybrid Records started using TikTok in the last year. Like other businesses they've found that the more engaging material are the funny ones, they're memorable. Cooper said people will message their account when they notice content production has slowed down, showing their demand for more.
For their neighbor, VNP Gallery, a thrift store, they found success another way.
"We've actually had one kind of like a Downtown Corpus (Chrsiti) things to do. And, that's kind of what started to blow up our TikTok. We have people constantly coming in, finding things to do and they're like, your TikTok brought us here," Emilio Trevino said, a co-owner of VNP Gallery.
No matter how they found success, a potential ban on TikTok concerns these businesses.
“It definitely hurts us to an extent because at this day in age, you’re a small business competing with multinational, huge corporations and conglomerates and stuff. And so, any thing that is available to us that’s free is obviously super beneficial,” Cooper said.
“People want to see what we have to offer or just what the city has to offer..." Trevino said. "Hopefully doesn’t affect us too, too much, but we’ll lose that audience.”
All three of these businesses said they oppose a ban on TikTok.
The newly passed House bill still needs to go through the Senate. Should it pass through the Senate and be signed by the President, legal experts expect it to be challenged in court.
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