Here are the winners and losers of TikTok’s U.S. shutdown drama

What should have been a defining chapter in this long-running saga has, in its form, brought more confusion than clarity. Questions persist, answers are scarce.

Yet this moment of limbo offers an opportunity to take stock. What better time to stop, take a breath, and gauge the winners and losers of this unfolding drama—at least as the story stands today.

The winners

Rival TikTok Platforms
TikTok’s competitors are practically giddy with schadenfreude as they watch the app lurch from one crisis to the next. With his future hanging in the balance, advertisers are wooing him discounts, incentives and open armseager to capture those who want to hedge their bets. Each rival has their own grievances with TikTok — lost ad spend, declining attention — and now they’re seizing the moment to reclaim what they believe is fully theirs.

President Donald Trump
It may seem like a stretch to call Trump the winner of the TikTok ban — after all, he lit the match during his first term — but if there’s one thing Trump thrives on, it’s plot twists. And now his attitude seems to have calmed down. In fact, things calmed down for a while, with the incoming president already hinting before the inauguration that he would find a way to keep the app running in the US. In fact, he is said to have invited TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew to his inauguration, sitting in a place of honor, according to The New York Times.

So when Trump announced an expansion of the law’s bans, it wasn’t shocking — it was to be expected. One of TikTok’s fiercest critics has turned into its last-minute savior. The whole situation perfectly underscores Trump’s sense of theater and drama, with the attention focused directly on him.

Advertisers rely on TikTok
Marketers are breathing a sigh of relief now that TikTok has received a temporary reprieve from Trump in the US. This platform was both a cornerstone of their advertising strategies and a direct line into the culture. Losing that platform, even temporarily, would mean trying to adjust ad dollars and rethink campaign strategies — a costly and time-consuming process.

Trump’s intervention allows these marketers to continue using TikTok to reach users while buying time to diversify and hedge their bets on other platforms. As it stands, the app remains a key player in the media landscape, and its temporary survival ensures that marketers can ride the wave of influence it creates.

Creators who rely on TikTok
Like marketers, creators are relieved that TikTok — at least for now — has avoided the ax thanks to the incoming president’s extension. For many, an app is more than just a platform. It is the engine that drives their careers, audience growth and brand deals. His loss would be a crushing blow that would force the creators to rebuild from scratch and leave their loyal following in the lurch.

Now they have a lifeline. TikTok’s temporary survival means creators can keep turning trends into paychecks, ideas into influence, and hobbies into lifestyles. It also gives them a crucial window into strategy: testing the waters on competing platforms without the chaos of a forced mass exodus. The lesson for creators is clear: stay nimble, be prepared, and don’t put all your eggs in one algorithm.

The real winners in this saga may be the marketers and creators who never built their media strategies on TikTok. They’re immune to chaos, said Josh Rosen, president of Hotspex Media.

“Today’s buyers will also realize that they haven’t really gotten much data transparency and that their [TikTok] the audience was fickle at first,” he added. “Their redistributed spending to other platforms will bear the same fruit.”

Similar to advertisers, there are some creators who tried TikTok and it just didn’t work for their audience, so they never bothered putting in the hours to build a following there — and right now, they’re feeling pretty good. smug about that decision.

“For a while, I felt pressure to create TikTok-style content, but for me, the brand awareness on TikTok just couldn’t compare to what I have on Instagram,” one creator told Digiday, trading anonymity for honesty. “I have a community of people on Instagram who totally get me and have been following me for 10 years.” This creator currently has 99.6K followers on Instagram.

Losers

US TikTok staff
American TikTok employees received a dose of clarity last week (January 14) when they were informed that wages and benefits would be secure and the platform’s US offices would remain open beyond the January 19 deadline. But like The Verge reportedthis assurance only goes so far. While the specific total number of employees is unclear, especially since a number of employees left the platform before the closing date, The New York Times reported (citing Live Data Technologies) that by the end of 2024, TikTok had a total of approximately 17,000 employees in the US.

For employees, this is not the kind of limbo anyone wants to endure. If TikTok were to leave indefinitely, the likelihood of long-term job security would diminish dramatically. The result: thousands of additional workers potentially flooding an already crowded job market, competing for their next opportunity in an uncertain economy. It’s another domino effect of drama that shows no signs of slowing down.

TikTok is used by 170 million American users
Now they have a lifeline. TikTok’s temporary survival means creators can keep turning trends into paychecks, ideas into influence, and hobbies into lifestyles. It also gives them a crucial window into strategy: testing the waters on competing platforms without the chaos of a forced mass exodus. The lesson for creators is clear: stay nimble, be prepared, and don’t put all your eggs in one algorithm.

American TikTok users may be relieved by Trump’s last-minute reprieve, but the stress hasn’t gone away. Temporary storage offers a glimmer of hope, but it’s far from a guarantee that the app’s future is secure. After weeks of uncertainty, users got a sobering look at life without TikTok. Trump’s executive order may keep the app alive for now, but it won’t erase the looming threat of a ban or its own recall. For millions, the relief is tempered by unease as the fate of the platform remains mired in political and legal limbo.

SMEs that rely on TikTok for their business
Bigger global brands will likely be able to weather the storm of losing access to TikTok’s US user base for a few hours. But for SMEs that have effectively built their success either by going viral on TikTok or being discovered on the platform, those lost hours could be costly.

Creators who rely on TikTok for monetization and audienceE
For most creators, TikTok is a part-time gig—the platform’s monetization usually doesn’t cover the bills. But there is a small, lucky percentage who have turned their TikTok success into a lucrative career. For the lucky few, the past few days have been nothing but nail-biting.

Take creator Madeline Ford, who had 2.1 million TikTok followers, previously told Digiday that the income she received from the TikTok Creativity Program (the platform’s updated creator fund) was “substantial” enough to pay her rent — even though she did not disclose the exact numbers.

Similarly, creator Hunter Prosper, who had 6.5 million TikTok followers, acknowledged the app’s unique role in shaping his success in terms of money earned from the platform and building an online community. “I can guarantee that from the experiences I’ve had, I definitely wouldn’t be where I am without TikTok,” he added.

For these creators, TikTok isn’t just another platform, it’s their livelihood. Losing it would be akin to a sudden layoff, forcing them to scramble to replicate their earnings and rebuild their audience on alternative platforms—a daunting and uncertain challenge in an increasingly competitive creator economy.