Chinese merchants on TikTok are taking precautionary measures to prepare for a looming ban of the short-video app in the United States, including switching to competing platforms and focusing on other overseas markets.
Qian Liu, a seller who runs 12 stores on TikTok targeting US consumers, has been marking down inventories and delaying the purchase of new stock, as she awaits the US Supreme Court’s final ruling on the app’s future.
Profits from her US business had been so impressive that she had planned to rent an office and hire local staff there, said Qian, who is based in Zhuhai city in southern Guangdong province. “But I haven’t done that yet because I feel that TikTok’s operations in the US aren’t stable,” she said.
TikTok is fighting a law signed by US President Joe Biden last April, which requires its owner, Beijing-based social media giant ByteDance, to divest the app’s American operations to non-Chinese owners or be banned in US app stores.
Questions posed by Supreme Court justices during last week’s oral arguments indicated that they leaned towards upholding the law. Absent of a divestment of TikTok’s US business, the ban will take effect on January 19 – a day before the inauguration of president-elect Donald Trump.
Having invested heavily in her US business through TikTok Shop, Qian said she would “definitely expand to other platforms” like Amazon.com and Shein. She is also mulling Spain and Mexico as potential markets.
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