On Wednesday afternoon, Meta executives held a question-and-answer session with several of its employees about the state of American politics.
Alex Schultz, the chief marketing officer, fielded questions about Meta’s embrace of the incoming Trump administration and what he said was the company’s precarious position overseas, according to two people in attendance. He also said that Meta was paying attention to the fate of one of its biggest competitors: TikTok.
Depending on what happened to TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance and faces a ban in the United States, Meta had to prepare for what could be a seismic shift in the way Americans use social media. Mr. Schultz said. Meta had the potential to profit, but he said the company had to be ready.
Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads, has a vested interest in the outcome. The Silicon Valley giant — along with Google’s YouTube and other social media apps — could benefit if a law banning TikTok from the United States takes effect on Sunday, leaving TikTok’s 170 million monthly users in USA high and dry. The Supreme Court is expected to rule soon on whether the federal law in question is constitutional.
Privately, Meta has sent teams to prepare to take in as many of the so-called TikTok refugees as possible, three people familiar with the plans said. That includes doing more to reach out to popular TikTok influencers and possibly further changing Instagram to make certain features more popular with heavy TikTok users, they said. Instagram offers Reels, a short-form video product that competes with TikTok.
“Instagram is a natural home” for TikTok creators and users, said Richard Kramer, a financial analyst at Arete Research. “Like TikTok, the app has online shopping and strong user engagement.”
YouTube has also made changes to its app — specifically YouTube Shorts, which offers users quick vertical videos — to appeal to TikTok creators. In October, YouTube expanded the maximum length of YouTube Shorts videos to three minutes, one at a time, to capture creators accustomed to TikTok, where videos can be up to 10 minutes long. This week, YouTube invited some creators who use its app and TikTok to a YouTube Shopping boot camp program to get up and running on the platform.
In a statement, a Meta spokesperson said the company was “following the news.” He added, “Like other apps and services in this highly competitive space, we’re certainly evaluating what different possible scenarios could mean for our products.”
A YouTube spokeswoman said the company regularly hosts camps to inform creators about product features and formats.
For years, Meta and Google have been preparing for the possibility of a TikTok ban in the United States. Their planning began in April, when President Biden signed a bill that would have forced ByteDance to sell TikTok to non-Chinese owners or face a ban in the United States. TikTok sued the federal government to challenge the law, with the case eventually going to the Supreme Court.
Publicly, Meta and Google have remained relatively quiet about what might happen if TikTok is kicked out of the United States, but they have been active behind the scenes, said three people familiar with the companies’ plans.
At the Meta meeting on Wednesday, led by Mr. Schultz, executives discussed how to allocate internal resources — including workers and financial support — in part to deal with a potential influx of TikTok users, the two familiar employees said. with the call. Several teams have discussed how to help TikTok users transition to Instagram, including potentially bringing some of their TikTok videos to Instagram, the people said.
Instagram and YouTube would gain “increasingly” more revenue and time spent on their apps by users if TikTok is banned, John Blackledge, an analyst at investment firm TD Cowen, said in an interview. But Instagram has the edge, he said.
US internet users said they were more likely to watch Instagram Reels after TikTok was banned, according to TD Cowen’s latest survey of 2,500 consumers. Reels would attract 29 percent of respondents, while 23 percent said they would spend more time on YouTube Shorts and 15 percent would be looking for a new app, according to the survey.
Among advertisers, Instagram’s advantage appeared even greater, with 56 percent of ad buyers telling TD Cowen in a survey last quarter that their clients wanted to advertise on Reels more this year. Another 24 percent preferred YouTube Shorts, while 20 percent preferred TikTok.
Meta and Google aren’t the only companies trying to capitalize on TikTok’s potential disaster. On Saturday, newsletter startup Substack announced a $25,000 “TikTok Liberation Prize” to be awarded to the creator whose video convinces the most TikTokers to post to join Substack , regardless of what happens with TikTok.
Clapper, a short video app similar to TikTok, this week offered some creators $200 for each video they make, which advertises its site as a destination for TikTok refugees. The company said the rate varied based on the creator’s content and following. And Xiaohongshu, a Chinese app similar to TikTok, colloquially known as “RedNote” in English, has also risen to the top of the App Store.
However, which company might take over TikTok’s territory is far from settled. Sammi Scotto, who produces content for TikTok and helps other creators join the social media platform, said she wasn’t putting all her eggs in one basket.
“I’ll be focused on Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn,” she said, “but keeping my eye on others.”
