New data reveals how a United States TikTok ban would benefit Hollywood. The short-form video app launched in September of 2016, and became incredibly popular throughout the COVID-19 pandemic especially. Since its exponential popularity, there has been talk among the US government to ban TikTok in the country due to its leadership by the Chinese company ByteDance.
As per Puck, new data shows how a TikTok ban could actually be beneficial to Hollywood. According to data shared by Apptopia C.E.O Jonathan Kay, TikTok users spend an average of 98 minutes / day watching videos on the platform. If TikTok were to be banned, Kay says that users would likely redirect their attention for those 98 minutes as follows: 25 minutes on YouTube, 15 minutes on Instagram, 5 minutes on Instagram, and 53 minutes on “other platforms.” While these other platforms could be a number of apps, streaming services would likely pick up some of that time.
How Are TikTok and Social Media Influencing Movies?
The friction between TikTok and Hollywood is twofold. For one, as the data indicates, there’s the amount of time that one spends on the platform as opposed to consuming TV and film content. Secondly, there is a “TikTokification” aspect to some modern media itself. That is, a number of Hollywood creations are featuring TikTok and other social media platforms in their shows in order to seem more timely and relevant.
Examples of this trend include recent films such as Bottoms and Bodies Bodies Bodies, wherein social media plays a key factor in how young characters speak and act. In some ways, this is realistic to the modern day, but can often lack tact and thoughtfulness unless in the hands of skillful writer-directors such as Bo Burnham, who created the social media social critique film Eighth Grade. While TikTok could still be replicated in media even if it was banned, the lowered use of the app could prevent it from featuring so prominently in other media.
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On the other hand, there are ways in which TikTok has helped the popularity of certain projects, such as 2022’s Wednesday. TikTok trends can also allow work atypical to the mainstream to seep into the cultural milieu, as was the case with last year’s surprise hit film Saltburn. Thus, the banning of TikTok in the US could help Hollywood in the pure minutes watched, but could take away a source of free advertising and virtual word of mouth.
