Tori Dunlap, a Seattle-based money expert and self-proclaimed financial feminist, has transformed her business, HerFirst100k, an educational platform that helps women gain financial knowledge and independence. believes it's thanks to TikTok.
Amin Sheikho is the CEO of Seattle startup Kadama. Kadama is an app that provides online tutoring services for both students in need of support and tutors looking to connect with their students. He said more than 70% of the app's users come from TikTok, which equates to millions of dollars a year for his business.
Both entrepreneurs strongly oppose bipartisan action taken this week by members of Congress who moved to ban the short video social media platform in the United States, citing national security concerns over TikTok's Chinese ownership. Ta.
“To say TikTok has changed our business is the biggest understatement of the year,” Dunlap said. “A ban on TikTok will have a profound impact on me and many people I know, especially women, and especially people of color who are using organic social media to build their businesses.”
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) also cited the potential harm to users, many of whom are people of color who depend on TikTok for a living, in a statement opposing a vote on the House bill. did.
Dunlap, a former marketing professional, had saved her first $100,000 by age 25 and quit her job. She is now a best-selling author and host of a top-rated podcast, imparting financial wisdom to women through workshops and a community that has grown to millions. This might not have happened without TikTok.
The fifth video she ever posted on the platform went viral in July 2020. A year later, her followers hit her one million mark. Another viral video in 2021 attracted her 100,000 email subscribers a week later. She credits the app with getting her book deal and attracting her certain press opportunities. She promoted her TODAY Show through her TikTok videos. She currently has 2.4 million followers.
“It's unprecedented. It's crazy,” Dunlap said of TikTok's impact on her business. “One of the things I'm most proud of is that she built her business without paying for any advertising. Organic social media like TikTok is the backbone of that.”
Amin Sheikho said a ban on TikTok “would be terrible” for Kadama.
The tutoring app he built at the University of Washington with his brother Dani Sheikho and friend Marwan El Rukby has grown due to the viral nature of the content on TikTok.
“We joined TikTok in its golden age. This is how we build a massive audience,” Amin Sheikho said in his February 2021 GeekWire profile. “It's all about expanding our following base, which in the future will be users of our products.”
Kadama's TikTok videos, which currently have 2.1 million followers, are a mix of random life hacks, tech tips, shopping information, and more. A video of Dani Sheikho holding a deodorant stick and offering iPhone tips previously went viral with 14 million views. In between such content are inserted videos promoting his Kadama as part of his series Tips for School.
Amin Sheikhho said that if the ban were to be implemented in the US, Kadama would see a major hit in customer acquisition and the startup would have to cut ties with thousands of tutors. He said he suspects that.
“Over 70% of our students discover us through TikTok,” he said. “It's the only short-form platform where you can crack the right algorithm and get the audience you want. You can get the same amount of views on many platforms, but the one with the highest conversion rate to customers. He’s on TikTok.”
With 170 million monthly users in the United States, TikTok has grown to become one of the most popular social media platforms in just six years. The Washington Post reported Thursday that hundreds of thousands of content creators are making a living from the app, and the careers of artists and influencers are skyrocketing.
“These are the very people who are advocating for small businesses and economic prosperity, but they don't realize that banning this app will put many small businesses in the lurch.”
— Tori Dunlap
Additionally, the Post notes that “more than 7 million U.S. businesses market and sell their products through TikTok,” and that the app “generated $14.7 billion in revenue for small business owners last year and added to the U.S. gross domestic product.” It contributed $24.2 billion to the
Dunlap believes there's a misconception surrounding TikTok that it's just a bunch of videos of teenagers dancing. She says real change has happened on the platform.
“We’ve been changing people’s lives with our financial literacy and personal finance content,” she said. “Right now, TikTok is an educational platform, and there's a lot of great content out there that's valuable, impactful, and enables people to live better lives.”
She also laughed off concerns about privacy, security and the potential for data theft as reasons for the ban.
“Is this what Facebook has been doing for almost 20 years?” Is everyone more scared because it's a foreign government? ” she said. “Right now, even when you're online, you don't have a lot of privacy. We need to talk about the infiltration of all the apps into our lives and the data they have. This is just… This is not a conversation on TikTok.”
Given this ongoing uproar, Dunlap advises the companies he consults to be wary of building an audience on a single platform that could disappear. From her first day, she has focused on growing her email subscriber list, which currently stands at 500,000 people, to ensure a stable way to engage directly with users.
Regardless of what happens with the ban in the U.S. Senate and with President Biden, Dunlap and Sheikhou both say they are playing politics and not recognizing the value of the apps to American businesses. He blames the MPs.
“We're dealing with mostly older members of Congress who have probably never touched TikTok a day in their lives,” Dunlap said. “These are the very people who are advocating for small businesses and economic prosperity, but they don't realize that banning this app will put many small businesses in the lurch.”
Shaikhou said that income paid to small businesses and creators would be lost, and that many politicians did not seem to even understand the technicalities of what was going on.
“We need young people in Congress,” he said.
