Some small businesses fear for survival amid potential TikTok ban

With the clock ticking on TikTok in the U.S., small business owners like Brandon Hurst are feeling the pressure. Hurst, also known as “Brandon the Plant Guy,” has seen his plant delivery business thrive on TikTok, tripling his sales since he started using the platform last year.

“I have been able to sell 57,000 plants in the last year,” Hurst shared. His success story is just one of many, as TikTok claims to support seven million small businesses and over 224,000 American jobs.

However, with President Biden signing a ban on TikTok as part of a foreign aid package, the future of the platform in the U.S. is uncertain. ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese-based owner, has nine to 12 months to sell the platform to an American owner or face a ban.

For entrepreneurs like Hurst, this ban could mean having to find a new platform to showcase their products. While TikTok plans to file a lawsuit over the ban, experts believe that Meta, the parent company of Instagram, could benefit the most from a TikTok ban.

As Hurst contemplates his next move, he acknowledges that there are limited options for live selling like TikTok offers. “I’m on Instagram, I’ve been doing business on other platforms,” Hurst said. “There’s just not that many places you can live sell. So I haven’t thought about it yet, to be honest. I’m not sure…what we would do.”