With TikTok’s fate in the US between the Supreme Court and President-elect Donald Trump, competitors are moving in to try to capture its ad dollars.
Snapchat, for example, is not holding back. According to two images shared with Digiday, in recent marketer presentations, the app’s ad sales team highlighted significant audience overlap between Snapchat and TikTok in the US, both on a daily and monthly basis.
The first slide shows Snapchat’s claim that 60% of US users over the age of 18 also use TikTok daily, while the second slide highlights that 77% of US Snapchat users aged 18 and over use TikTok monthly. Both images strongly suggest that anyone looking for a possible replacement could at least find most of their TikTok users on Snapchat.
Parallels between Snapchat and TikTokplatforms are well known and crossover audiences on this scale are almost expected. As Colleen Fielder, vice president of social and marketing solutions partner at Basis Technologies, explained after reviewing the images shared with Digiday, “It doesn’t surprise me to see this data point explicitly mentioned in sales pitches.”
Meta: 3.29 billion daily active people across the family of apps
Snapchat: 850 million MAUs, 443 million DAUs
Pinterest: 537 million MAUs
Reddit: 97.2 million daily active unique users (users).
WeAre8: 2 million verified unique users
Substack: Over 4 million paid subscribers, tens of millions of total active subscribers across the network
What’s more remarkable is Snapchat’s timing. That Snapchat is actively counting TikTok advertisers only underscores how much the short-form video app has disrupted its rival. In recent years, TikTok hasn’t just competed with Snapchat for ad dollars — it’s used Snapchat to grow its own user base. In fact, TikTok was Snapchat’s biggest advertiser in 2020, a turn that adds another layer to the growing tension between the two platforms.
And it’s not just Snapchat’s aggressiveness.
Sweeteners on YouTube
YouTube has offered sweeteners in recent weeks to encourage advertisers to spend more ad money on them, according to two advertising executives. Think “spend X amount and the platform will give you X amount in ad credits.”
“YouTube is generous, if you negotiate right, generous in how you can redeem credits,” said one of those US ad executives who shared details with Digiday on condition of anonymity.
For YouTube, TikTok’s meteoric rise has been more than a financial threat—it has redefined the online video landscape by shifting the battle for attention to short content fueled by viral trends, fleeting moments and the quirky, ephemeral magic of a well-timed dance. . If TikTok were to disappear, it would leave a sizable gap in media plans that one YouTube would be eager—and uniquely positioned—to fill.
To make matters worse, Pinterest is also on the move.
It offered a percentage match for advertisers who increased their investment by a certain minimum amount starting on or before January 22, Fielder said after corresponding with the platform.
About the plans, Pinterest’s vice president of global agency sales, Soniya Monga told Digiday, “We have existing bonus media incentives tied to incremental paid spend. With the changes happening across the industry, now is a great time for our partners to take advantage. As a place where people find inspiration, advertisers can benefit from Pinterest’s positive environment, and research shows that positivity pays off at every stage of the buying funnel.”
Like Pinterest, Meta offered a percentage match for incremental spend with reel ads or incremental budget during the month of January 2025 – without the need for a specific product or measurement solution, Fielder continued.
Another US ad exec, who spoke on condition of anonymity, also confirmed he saw Meta offer advertisers a 3-to-1 or 5-to-1 match for incremental investment in January.
Reddit’s gambit
Reddit is also in the mix, reminding advertisers of its 70 million US daily users and matching $1,000 in credit ad spend since the start of the year.
“We’ve definitely seen opportunities to get ad credits across channels—Pinterest in particular has been pushing our team pretty hard on those deals lately,” said Tucker Matheson, co-founder and CEO of Markacy.
Although he also noted that it’s not uncommon for ad credits to be more readily available at the beginning of the year, when advertisers are finalizing their annual budgets.
“Maybe there is some synergy with the timing. [around the TikTok ban]Matheson added.
While it’s too early to crown a winner, YouTube seems to have the upper hand in a head-to-head battle with Meta. The challenge for Meta is performance — according to ad executives we spoke to for this article, Reels is no match for YouTube or TikTok.
“The TikTokification of social media will outlast the potential ban on TikTok,” said Jasmine Enberg, vice president and principal analyst of the social and creative economy at eMarketer. “TikTok popularized short videos and now almost every social platform, including LinkedIn, is a short video app. This is a testament to TikTok’s lasting effect on the social landscape.”
The a contest for the talent of the creator
These platforms aren’t just competing for ad dollars, they’re going after TikTok creators—the flywheel of content, engagement, and revenue. They know that creators bring users who bring more creators, turning one-time visitors into daily scrollers.
WeAre8 is one of the platforms that explicitly hoped to nab TikTok creators.
“This week we’ve been actively focusing on creators and bringing more to WeAre8 because of the uncertainty surrounding TikTok in the US,” a WeAre8 spokesperson told Digiday. As a result of constant outreach, more than 2,000 creators have joined WeAre8, they added.
The marketing team sent out a piece of messaging titled “Why WeAre8 is the TikTok replacement you’ve been waiting for,” as well as what they describe as “tactical creative” — a vertical video (below) similar to a TikTok-like short form that suggests WeAre8 should be part of the “TikTok ban survival kit” creator. Both the communication and the video were organically disseminated through all social media channels owned and operated by WeAre8, in addition to direct engagement with creators while further ATL (advertising strategy) plans are discussed, they added.
Substack they don’t sit on the sidelines either
The platform is trying to create more buzz around the live video feature, which is available to all publishers. But more importantly, Substack execs published the piece specifically states that in this limbo period of waiting for the Supreme Court ruling to ban TikTok, Substack is “making it easier for more creators to join Substack, maintain their audience, and build a loyal community.” And that includes offering a $25,000 prize for TikTok creators who “creatively inspire others to join Substack and start a trend.”
Create merchandise, incentives, discounts – these are all part of the playbooks platforms use to keep advertisers (and creators) engaged, especially in turbulent times. With a flurry of recent offers from YouTube, Snapchat, and others, it’s clear that they’re dusting off those tactics again and positioning themselves to grab any free TikTok ad dollars that can come their way. The game is running and no one is solving it.
“TikTok’s impact goes beyond a short video,” Enberg added. “Its powerful algorithm was the envy of every other social platform and forced its competitors to tweak their own technology to better match what TikTok had to offer. While no platform has been able to replicate TikTok’s algorithm, it is likely that they will continue to try, with or without TikTok, to compete with it.”
Meta and YouTube did not immediately respond to Digiday’s request for comment. Reddit declined to comment. Snapchat declined to comment specifically on the article, but instead pointed to the platform’s newest creator, “Find your favorites on Snapchat” campaign.
