Do you have TikTok on your phone? The social media app has grown in popularity with some using it to watch videos, and others to create content.
But that could all go away next month. TikTok is asking the Supreme Court to block a law that would require its owner to sell the platform to an American company or get banned.
That being said, some local businesses and organizations in Connecticut say they benefit from the foot traffic TikTok brings, and that it being banned would be a bit of a bummer.
At NaturalAnnie Essentials Candle Making Bar and Event Space in Bridgeport, a 30-second video can create months of business.
Get top local stories in Connecticut delivered to you every morning. >Sign up for NBC Connecticut's News Headlines newsletter.
"When we do go viral on TikTok, we're seeing months upon months of inflow of traffic into the candle bar,” Annya White-Brown, the founder of NaturalAnnie Essentials, said.
White-Brown’s TikTok account for the business has 26,000 followers and has garnered almost 400,000 likes total.
She said people in Connecticut rediscover Bridgeport from their videos. She said they even get attention from out-of-staters who tag their Connecticut friends.
Local
If the app was to go away, she said it would make her rethink part of her marketing strategy.
"It really worries me, as a small business owner, as to how am i then going to, you know, replace that reach we had on TikTok with something else, with little to no budget?” White-Brown said.
Tiktok isn't just getting people in the door for shopping, it's getting some back into books.
"It definitely brought people in that were like, that's my hometown library, or I got to check this out,” Claudette Stockwell, the director of the Killingly Public Library, said.
The library’s TikTok account has gotten over 150,000 likes total, and one of their videos almost reached a million views.
Stockwell said a TikTok ban wouldn't impact their day-to-day operation.
“It will have an impact on our ability to get the message out there that libraries are still relevant,” Stockwell said.
Dr. Brian Marks, an economics professor at the University of New Haven, said Connecticut has over 29,000 users on TikTok.
"Online platforms, small businesses learned very quickly that they could almost have an outsize or an oversize impact on a particular niche by leveraging online. So again, there'll be an impact,” Marks said.
Some creators and business owners he’s seen have been innovative in taking advantage of what the app has to offer, but he believes they could do the same on another platform.
But that platform, he says will likely be decided by people between the ages of 18 and 34 years old.
“Is there another platform the generation will be comfortable with?" Marks said.
TikTok asked the Supreme Court to block this bipartisan law by Jan. 6. That’s about two weeks before a ban would take place.
