Will TikTok, and by extension, TikTok Shop, survive now Donald Trump is likely to become the next US President after November elections?
“Now [that] I’m thinking about it, I’m for TikTok, because you need competition,” Trump said in an interview with Bloomberg Businessweek published this week. “If you don’t have TikTok, you have Facebook and Instagram — and that’s, you know, that’s Zuckerberg.”
The interview was recorded last month. (Here is a Reuters article on the topic).
When the bipartisan bill to ban TikTok was passing the US congress in March this year, Trump voiced his opposition. This was unexpected to many observers because Trump had been very much against TikTok during his term as the 45th President of the US.
Also, on 24 June 2024, Trump appeared in a video on his official TikTok account promising an interesting set of two things: “No tax on tips” and “I’m gonna save TikTok”.
Does that mean TikTok will be safe, if Trump wins the November election?
The platform probably will, but many factors are still not clear. For example: will ByteDance ownership of TikTok be able to continue as it is? Will this policy remain during his tenure or will he change his mind because of external circumstances?
Back then, we commented (in Episode 66 of The Impulso Podcast) that Trump’s voiced objection might not mean he would go against a policy that had so much bipartisan support (the bill passed 352-65).
A lot of things have happened since then. Trump emerged from last week’s assassination attempt a much stronger leader, and many speculate that his views on many things might be shifted because of this experience.
Things will certainly not be dull moving forwards. As far as TikTok Shop is concerned, as we mentioned in the Ecommerce in Southeast Asia 2024 report published this week, the focus is still squarely on the US market.
Southeast Asia, on the other hand, can become a profitable market for TikTok Shop with or without the US market. Will they have enough leadership attention and competent senior people to make this happen sooner rather than later?
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