You had a good run, TikTok

A goodbye letter to the platform that gave me a career ❤️

A Disruptor is Born

The smartest thing that TikTok did was change it’s name from “Musical.ly” to “TikTok” in 2019 in an attempt to rebrand to an older audience. Along with that, they pushed the time limit on videos from 15-seconds to 60-seconds. This allowed for users to upload videos with a bit more substance versus the app being dominated by sped-up lip-sync videos that sounded like Alvin and the Chipmunks.

Since 2020, there has been a tug-of-war between the U.S. government and a new social media platform that took over the American’s attention-span like no other platform we had seen before.

America is known for it’s innovation in the tech and social media space. Popular apps like Myspace, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, YouTube, Twitter and Snapchat were all born in the land of freedom.

For almost 15 years, the internet revolved around Silicon Valley.

I don’t have to rehash the story of TikTok for the millionth-time but you know what happened in 2020 when everyone got bored and needed a new platform that had an infinite number of new videos uploaded to it every minute.

TikTok was a disruptive app that changed what users and creators expect from platforms and the innovative FYP forced legacy platforms to change to a short-form, vertical-first feed or get left behind.

The U.S. government was always skeptical of TikTok due to its Chinese roots, but didn’t bat an eye when Americans used Facebook Events Pages and Twitter to plan a literal insurrection.

If you are going to be mad at one app, be mad at the others.

The hate for TikTok, I believe, was always rooted in Xenophobia. The definition of Xenophobia is, “the fear of anything not from your country”.

Since the first Trump administration in 2020, the federal government has made multiple attempts to ban the app. To politicians, the FYP was seen as unpredictable and less controllable than the apps created by their American allies and sometimes donors.

Congress made a huge mistake in 2023 when they had a very public questioning of TikTok’s CEO, President Shou Zi Chew, during one of their ban attempts. This questioning was humiliating for the representatives and I would argue that the Singapore-born president of TikTok showed more patriotism than the representatives hired to protect our very Constitutional rights.

He argued for the protection of American’s freedom of speech and stressed the importance of the app as a way for users to share information. Representatives were too worried asking about how TikTok possibly connects to a user’s WiFi.

This hearing was an embarrassment for America. Congress should be using that valuable time to crack down on gun laws or make healthcare accessible for all. But no, they are getting paid 6 to 8 figures a year to ask about how WiFi works.

After this flop hearing, the public’s support of TikTok only grew. There is nothing Americans love more than an underdog.

The American government grew smarter and blindsided TikTok a year later when they held a closed door and speedy approval of a new ban of the platform. They knew not to let cameras in and film their utter incompetence and disdain for an app that is no different than the ones created on American soil and used to dismantle the American government.

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Why TikTok would rather get banned than sell to a U.S.-based company:

Part of the new stipulation was that TikTok had to sell to a U.S. based-company if they wanted to avoid the American ban. I made videos about this when it was announced and I stand by my sentiment that TikTok is not going to sell.

America only makes up 15% of Byte Dance’s daily users.

TikTok’s influence in America gives China more soft power and the American user-base is a huge portion of the company’s financial growth. But it isn’t the end of the world if they lose out on this user-base.

If you want to predict how TikTok might react to the appeal court holding up the impending January ban unless there is a sale, look at their past behavior as an indicator.

Universal Music Group is one of the biggest media companies, not just domestically, but globally. Earlier this year, UMG issued a manifesto to TikTok and pulled all of their artists’ music off the platform unless TikTok agreed to new terms and to pay the labels more for use of the music on their platform.

UMG is the biggest record label in the world and it includes artists; such as, Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Bad Bunny, The Weeknd, Miley Cyrus and more.

After UMG issued a multi-page manifesto, TikTok responded with a few short sentences. If you read between the lines, they basically said: “haha ok bye”.

Their short response basically made UMG look like an overly-emotional and controlling ex. The two companies were at a stand still for months but TikTok did not budge.

Months later, UMG seemingly surrendered from the fight they started when they quietly put their artist’s music back on the platform and agreed to a new licensing deal with TikTok that seemed to be urged by some of their biggest artists expressing frustration with their videos being muted on their own profiles.

This check mate was a great indicator of how TikTok operates: for better or for worse. They might be the new kid on the block but they aren’t going to get bullied.

And why would TikTok sell? They created a really freaking cool product. This app has changed the way users and creators operate on the internet forever. TikTok had legacy platforms shaking in their boots as they reluctantly adapted to create their own versions of the FYP.

The popularity of TikTok forced legacy platforms like Meta, Snapchat and YouTube to change the way they organize their feeds and algorithms. It felt like these platforms were always 10-steps behind TikTok. I wouldn’t be surprised if legacy platforms from the U.S., like Meta and Twitter, are secretly behind the years-long battle to get TikTok banned (allegedly).

If TikTok did not kneel down to the biggest media company in the world (UMG), why would they kneel down to a government who’s users only make up 15% of their daily user base?

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Further evidence that TikTok most likely won’t sell: The ads

Another reason I believe TikTok will not sell is because of how desperate they seem to be acting on the FYP lately. No offense to TikTok!

I love the app and I have championed them since I began working on the app in 2019, but I have to call them out when they deserve it.

The FYP, at least for me as an American user, has been flooded with way more ads than normal.

I did a screen-recording to show you that I am not crazy. Every 3-5 scrolls was an ad. This was immediately upon opening TikTok after not picking up my phone for a few hours. The ads began immediately and aggressively. It wasn’t like I had been scrolling for four hours and they ran out of videos to show me. No, the aggressive ads were immediate.

TikTok, this is utterly ridiculous. I was rooting for you! I championed you! How can you do my feed this dirty?!

To me, this shows TikTok’s desperation. I believe they have given up on fostering a genuinely creative platform that champions new creators and are instead milking the American audience for every last ad dollar.

It would also make sense if they don’t want American TikTokers to go super viral in these next few weeks as that means they would have to pay them out more from the Creator Program.

TikTok’s fatal flaw was not integrating longer videos which would have made the integration of mid-roll ads much easier. Instead, they stuck to 15-30 second videos which are nearly impossible to monetize.

Most creators who were doing brand deals on TikTok were doing it without TikTok as a middle man. Whereas with YouTube, the mid-roll ads they run on viral videos go through them first.

I spoke about this in a recent episode of “Ahead of the Curve with Coco Mocoe” titled “Stop Trying to be a TikToker” about how I went to the recent TikTok Creativity Summit in Los Angeles and was appalled at how bad the event was. It was almost like they had given up.

cocomocoe

A post shared by @cocomocoe

The advice they gave us seasoned creators, some of whom had flown from out of state to be there, that “high quality content is good”. That is like going to a doctor about an ailment and they tell you, “just…get healthier!”

I also thought it was telling that no big creators were at the event. Two years ago, big creators like Drew Afualo, James Charles and Alix Earle would have been foaming at the mouth to be at a TikTok Summit and align themselves with the coolest app on the block. Instead, it was a ghost town of relevance. Blood was in the water.

I left that event frustrated but in hindsight, I wonder if they stopped trying because they secretly knew their fate. It is kind of like when you put in your two weeks at a job and can barely muster up the energy to go into the office those last few days. You are leaving so why try?

The only reason I could see TikTok reluctantly sell to a U.S. company would be to save their 7,000+ U.S.-based employees. Those are the people who my heart goes out to more than any creator, including myself.

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How social media will change in the next year if TikTok gets banned:

One of the most common questions I get asked whenever the TikTok ban is back in the spotlight is: “What app should we go to next?”

While I don’t know what app will replace TikTok, what I do know is that users are going to have tons more free-time on their hands to scroll on other platforms.

Just because TikTok might get banned, it doesn’t mean that millions of users appetite for hours of daily content is going to magically disappear. They are going to find another platform to pacify that need.

I believe the app that will come out on top is the one that makes filming videos easier than all other platforms.

That is why TikTok became so widely adopted. I was at a competing platform’s headquarters once and they wanted me to record and post a short video to their platform. I asked them how to edit a certain segment and the employees told me:

“Just do it on TikTok then repost here. That is easier.”

The platform itself knew that TikTok had a much easy recording and editing process than it’s own. Ask almost any influencer and they will most likely tell you that they record the bulk of their videos on TikTok then repost them to the other platforms. Everything trickles down from TikTok first.

I also think we are going to see another “Vine Migration 2.0” where the TikTokers that retain their relevancy as TikTok disappears will be the ones that make the jump to long-form media like YouTube and podcasting. The viners that maintained relevancy were the ones that made the jump to YouTube when Vine abruptly ended and began posting long-form videos instead of their typical 7-second videos.

The longer the media, the longer your audience remembers you for.

TikTok was great for exposure but it was not great for building a loyal community. The nature of the FYP was all about showing users new creators every few seconds. That unpredictability is what made it so addicting. But it is also why so many TikTokers jumped platforms once they found exposure on TikTok.

I spoke about this in my podcast episode titled, “Stop trying to be a TikToker”, but one of the first big comedy TikTokers, Brittany Broski, has not posted to her main TikTok account since May of 2024. But she does actively post to her Instagram and multiple YouTube channels weekly. She is the least active on TikTok. That is telling.

Pictured above is a screenshot of Brittany Broski’s most recent TikTok on her main account. It was posted in May, which is 7 months ago.

For me, Substack has been such a saving grace. I don’t really trust platforms anymore after TikTok (allegedly) shadowbanned me for a time after raising money for a family fleeing the war-torn Palestine. My audience raised $60,000+ which I am so proud of and would do again in a heart beat.

Right after I posted my first video about the topic, I received a notification that my videos were “no longer eligible for the FYP”. The family I was raising money for was interviewed by UNICEF, who also shared out their GoFundMe link on their official website. I made sure there was no gray area for a platform to say I was raising money for a scam or fake family. I did my due diligence and was still punished.

It was a painful reminder that I am not entitled to any virality or exposure. It doesn’t matter that I grew my audience to 1 million+ on the TikTok platform. One day, that can all be taken away. And it seems that day is getting closer.

I have also been leaning into my series on YouTube, “The Middle Row”, since it is something that is harder to produce which means it is harder for someone to copy and steal from me. TikTok made filming so easy that it made the creators with fuzzy morals have an easier time stealing content and ideas from others in a speedy fashion. All they needed was the green screen effect and a dream!

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The TikTok Black Hole

We might see one of our first examples of the “internet black hole” theory take place when TikTok is banned. This is the theory that everything we post online will one day vanish.

We will no longer have pictures to show our grandkids one day because all our thirst trap photos of how hot we looked in our 20’s will be wiped out when Facebook or iCloud deletes that said photo album. Since we don’t print out physical copies of photos anymore, there will be no records that those images ever existed.

I have uploaded thousands of videos to TikTok in the last 4 years. Even if I reposted those videos to Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts, I often cut those videos down to 60-seconds or less. So they are still not the original copy with all the necessary context.

When TikTok gets banned in January, all of the videos I have ever posted will disappear forever. Along with millions of other users.

I noticed that TikTok recently changed their “save” button to include a TikTok watermark. This means you can not download the TikTok video unless it has the TikTok watermark embedded on it. I believe they did this because they want to leave their fingerprints all over the internet’s most viral videos for when they are gone.

If you are a creator, make sure you save versions of your favorite videos to a hard drive or Google Folder before it’s too late!

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To TikTok: Thank you ❤️

Despite the times I have been critical of you, TikTok, I hope you know how much I love you. You gave me a career more times than once.

When I started at Famous Birthdays and was hired to run their TikTok account, I was terrified that this would tank any chance at a marketing career since future jobs would only take me seriously if I had “Instagram”, “Facebook” or “Twitter” on my resume. I was even told by someone I went to college with that “only creepy adults are on TikTok.”

Years later, that same person would reach out to ask me for advice on how they can get TikTok famous. LOL.

Despite my fears of TikTok being a dead end for my marketing career, I did it anyways. The app felt new and exciting. I was like a moth drawn to a flame.

Because of the FYP, I found creators like Charli D’Amelio who I produced an interview with that got 44 million views on YouTube and was the reason I got hired for my dream job at BuzzFeed.

On my lunch breaks at BuzzFeed, I started posting videos of trend predictions. TikTok was the only app that made it so easy to film and post in the 5-free minutes I had that day. I could have never done that on YouTube or as a Twitch streamer.

Those videos changed my life. Because of those trend reports, I grew to 1 million+ followers as “Coco Mocoe” and got a talent agent. I was able to go full-time as a creator and interview celebrities like Holly Madison and Jade, because they had seen my TikToks.

I flew to Cannes Lions, New York City, Miami and more to be a panel host because of my TikTok. I got to work with A-list celebrities as clients because of my TikTok.

But most importantly, I found my coconuts because of TikTok.

So many things were stripped from me this year. My health, my relationship, my friendships, a podcast that I loved. Everything was torn away from me. It felt like I was getting hit with a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire over-and-over again. Anytime I stood up and dusted myself off, I got hit from a blind spot I thought was safe.

Through all this, I realized that people could take things away from me as much as they wanted. But the one thing they couldn’t take from me was the relationship between me and my audience.

You guys took a chance with me and jumped over to Substack. I hope this becomes our new home base as my biggest platform disappears.

The most important lesson in all of this is that as a creator, you must be able to adapt. It is why I never want to be called an “expert” in anything. The internet moves much too quickly. The moment you think you are an expert in something is the moment it changes.

TikTok gave me the confidence to not just walk the walk but talk the talk. It allowed thousands of average people, like me, to start posting videos and find their voice. For that, I will always be thankful.

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