Home Tech UK TikTokers say goodbye to US followers as ban looms: ‘It’s a really beautiful community’

UK TikTokers say goodbye to US followers as ban looms: ‘It’s a really beautiful community’

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UK TikTokers say goodbye to US followers as ban looms: 'It's a really beautiful community'

If TikTok disappears from the US, it won’t just be its 170 million American users who will lose out.

British TikTokers and business owners told The Guardian they will also lose a considerable portion of their audience after a ban. The video app has become a key American gateway for UK online video creators, who make a living by racking up views and making sponsored content deals. With the ban taking effect on Sunday, a US-sized hole will appear in the global user base.

“In English-speaking markets, many creators have sizable American audiences following them,” says Thomas Walters, CEO of Billion Dollar Boy, a U.K.-based advertising agency that brings together blue-chip advertisers with creators and influencers. A ban would be “really sad” for creators who have “built audiences from nothing” on TikTok, he adds.

The Guardian spoke to several UK-based creators and an entrepreneur who say they will be affected by a ban.

Jay Beech, 30, London

Users in the US represent almost half of Beech’s 1.7 million audience on Tiktok. He says there is a strong relationship between creators and users on both sides of the Atlantic, a form of digital cultural exchange that millions of Britons and Americans will miss.

“It’s going to be a big difference for all of us to see that gap in our sources,” he says.

Beech, who describes her posts as “high-energy fashion content”, says sponsored content – ​​from brands such as US skincare line Kiehl’s and Sky TV – provides the majority of her income. He also has a presence on YouTube Shorts and Instagram, but says he’s noticed that TikTok users “don’t necessarily follow you elsewhere.”

“(A ban will) throw people into this diaspora of trying to find their favorite creators again and finding a new home on whatever platform they choose,” he said.

Fats Timbo, 28, Kent

Fats Timbo is a comedian and podcaster. Photography: Timbo Fats

Fats is a comedian and disability activist who posts comedy, beauty, and lifestyle content. 3 million followers on TikTok. She says the platform’s reach in the United States (about a quarter of its followers) has been vital to her work.

“TikTok is crucial to my career because it allows me to connect with an American audience, where representation of people like me (black women with dwarfism) is often lacking,” she says.

Timbo adds that the United States offers creators like her the opportunity to “grow, collaborate and be seen on a global stage.”

“It’s not just about numbers. It’s about the impact I can have and the representation I can provide to people who rarely see someone like them in the media. Losing that connection would be like losing part of my purpose,” he says.

Timbo says his American audience is “key to securing brand deals, collaborations and visibility on a global scale.” Losing TikTok in the United States would be a “major setback,” but he is also creating content on Instagram to maintain his connection with his American followers.

Em Wallbank, 25, South Yorkshire

American viewers make up about 40% of Em Wallbank’s audience. The South Yorkshire-based creator says her comedy sketches have been a hit across the Atlantic, partly due to her accent. Wallbank, best known for his publications on the Harry Potter characters, He has 1.7 million followers on TikTok.

“I think part of my popularity is because I’m from the north and my accent is a little novel (to American users),” he says.

Wallbank, who began posting skits on TikTok in 2022, says the U.S. social media market is a testing ground for a creator’s ability to build a broad career, like the Kardashians and Nicole Richie.

“Those who are having careers outside of social media are because they have attracted the attention of the American public,” he said.

Wallbank’s popularity in the United States has led her to work at fan conventions in the United States, as well as creating sponsored content with multinationals such as Disney+ in the United Kingdom. He worries about potential creators who could use TikTok and its American audience to access a creative career that would have otherwise been out of reach.

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“Being able to enter a creative industry, with my experience, is huge,” he says.

Sarah Yuma, 30, London

Yuma says a TikTok audience in the U.S. has been crucial to the growth of her business, selling home and hair accessories made from African fabrics.

“It can be difficult to build a business based solely on the UK audience. During the lockdown, it was the American public that boosted my business and took it to the next level,” he says.

Yuma, who has more than 3,000 followers on TikToksays it had an influx of American customers and followers amid a surge in popularity of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020.

Sarah Yuma, who sells handmade products made from fabrics from Africa, at her home in London on Thursday. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian

TikTok’s disappearance from the US would mean “losing a big part of my community,” Yuma says. “They have helped me with my designs. “It’s a really beautiful community I’ve created.”

If TikTok goes dark in the United States, he adds, he will have to rethink how it connects with an American audience.

“I’m going to have to rethink my strategy on how to keep them in my community and stay in touch with them,” he says. “I don’t want to isolate them. “They are really important to my business.”

Sam Cornforth, 29, London

Cornforth Publications fitness-related comedy sketches to his 460,000 followers, with the United States accounting for about a quarter of that total. It says its income from sponsored content will be protected by the fact that it works with UK-based brands such as Argos.

However, he says brands could react negatively if creators lose a sizable portion of their audience.

“Brands pay attention to their total reach. If you potentially cut 20% to 30% of that amount, will that affect your future opportunities with those brands?” asked.

Cornforth adds that TikTok’s American audience is important in establishing trends that filter over to other platforms. Without that influence, creators could lose momentum and inspiration for their work.

“It’s the birthplace of trends, which then trickle down to YouTube Shorts and Instagram,” he says.

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