This episode is available on: * Spotify * YouTube * Apple Podcasts Today we discuss the future course of one of the most addictive, engaged, and controversial social media platforms: TikTok. Increasing privacy risk and disappointing revenues have raised questions about TikTok’s sustainability and position as a leading social platform. As the US government bans the app from government-issued cell phones and its users gain visibility on its privacy concerns, will TikTok lose its sheen to get permanently banned? ✅Eli says TikTok will never get banned by the government, but maybe by the big app stores ⛔Kevin says TikTok will get banned by the US government by November next year In this episode of Contrarian Marketing, we discuss: * How TikTok can acquire serious and talented creators * Whether TikTok might get banned in the US * How marketers can use TikTok Key Takeaways * TikTok cannot replace Google search * TikTok should adopt a revenue-sharing-based monetization model with creators (like YouTube does) to attract quality creators * TikTok is an undervalued channel for B2B Marketing * Use TikTok for content repurposing and advertising * TikTok provides a first-mover advantage opportunity for niche creators Kevin’s take: TikTok has no future Kevin states how rising privacy concerns with the US government and beyond can strongly put an end to TikTok: “I don't think TikTok has a future, not because of the product and the platform, but more so because of regulation. The US government already imposes sanctions on lots of companies, especially Chinese companies, manufacturers, and creators. So I don't think it's completely unrealistic that the US government would put a sanction on Bytedance or force the company to sell TikTok.” Even with its popularity and addictive algorithm, TikTok indeed faces competition with many other platforms like Google, Netflix, YouTube, etc. But this doesn’t mean it can replace Google. Eli: “I tried a bunch of searches and the quality is terrible. Let's say you do a search for the top place in the city. You're going to find content, you're going to find engaging videos. If you are the kind of person that is led by influencers, by all means, you will find the greatest things to do. But if you are the kind of person that really wants to curate your experience, TikTok does not offer that to you. You have to go through so many videos before you find something that's not on the popular list on Google.” TikTok also has an opportunity to share revenue with its creators to truly make them stick to the platform. “The monetization is very different (than YouTube). I don't know how much exactly Charli D’Amelio got, but she got some money from TikTok and also made a ton of money from just influencer gigs. Whereas Mr. Beast gets a lot of money from YouTube itself. YouTube shares about 50% of its revenue with creators. And I think that's what TikTok has to do as well in order to keep the creators and make sure they're not making money in other ways. This could also raise and groom the next wave of creators on TikTok.” Eli’s take: TikTok might get shadowbanned Eli predicts that TikTok will get shadow banned: “My prediction is that the government's gonna make it very uncomfortable for the platforms, which are Apple and, and Google to host the TikTok app and provide TikTok updates to people that have the TikTok app on their phones. Apps like that have been dropped from the app stores and then it's effectively bent. Then in order to get TikTok on your phone, you have to sideload it and no one's going to do that. So that's done. I just think that if they go this regulation route, it will be challenged. Trump tried really hard and he wasn't successful. I just don't know that we have tools in our system of laws to ban things –  like FTX could have been banned, and Crypto could have been illegal. So they don't have the tools to make things illegal like that. To make something really stop, yo