ICYMI: The State of TikTok mid 2024
Plus the Asian Creator Awards first-ever event 🎉
Welcome to ICYMI, the newsletter that recaps the most important social and creator headlines of the week. On a personal note, we’re all watching The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives (aka the women of #MomTok) this week, right?! And if you’re a brand who’s gifted or worked with #MomTok influencers, I need to know how you feel about all this!
⏰ 1-SECOND SUMMARY
TikTok introduced a new Delete and re-edit feature
Oral arguments in the potential TikTok ban case start Monday, Sept. 16
Instagram may be testing notifications when people pinch and zoom on photos
Report: Snapchat is the least toxic app for teens’ mental health
Report: 73% of US Gen Zers say they make online purchases from creators
Creators: have you applied to get on NASA’s event list?!
The 76th Primetime Emmy Awards air on ABC, Sunday, Sept. 15
The first-ever Asian Creator Awards 2024 took place Thursday in LA
💻 ROADMAP
📲 TikTok Updates
TikTok released the latest update of TikTok Trending: Unpacking Autumn's biggest trends, including #FilipinoFood, #BookTok and #HappyHardcore.
Spotted: TikTok introduced a new Delete and re-edit option on videos that allows you to make changes within the platform and repost up to three times. Some people had this feature previously but it seems to be more widely available this week. And the reaction to being able to fix typos, create better hooks or add shop codes has been overwhelmingly positive.
Other new’ish and useful TikTok 2024 updates:
A new slider tool to customize your FYP
Creator Search Insights to help identify trending topics
In-app Group Chats for up to 32 people
Amazon partnership that allows in-app checkout on TikTok
In-app hubs for videos about movies and TV shows
Thumbnail editing to upload custom covers on new or older videos
Creator videos listed by “latest” or most “popular” on desktop profiles
TikTok Focus 2024
TikTok’s undergone quite the shift this year — from a focus on short-form video to encouraging photos, videos longer than 60 seconds and TikTok Shop.
Photo Content: Earlier this year, TikTok encouraged users to post more photo carousels. Photos can get 2.9x more comments than videos, according to an in-app notification. That fits within an overall trend toward carousels across the industry. However, TikTok carousels have tended to be more intentional than an Instagram photo dump (Gymshark is a good example of swipe left storytelling on TikTok). And then in April, Canadians and Australians got access to TikTok Notes, a spinoff app that can be best described as what you’d get if Instagram and Pinterest had a baby. It has yet to roll out globally but TikTok may be holding off on new initiatives given the upcoming court case.
Mid- or Long-Form Video: TikTok users are spending 50% of their time consuming long-form content, according to Kim Farrell, Global Head of Creators at TikTok. The company is calling its focus on 60+ second videos More Tok on the Clock. Data from Tubular Labs’ State of Social video report also backs that up, putting the ideal video duration at 1-2 minutes or 20 minutes (if you’re one of the select creators able to upload video that long). At the same time, new research suggests the majority of brands are not getting it right — 60% of branded TikTok videos were simply forgettable, according to creative effectiveness platform DAIVID. Simply being on TikTok isn’t enough anymore, brands need to focus on developing engaging content that cuts through the noise rather than simply chasing trends.
TikTok Shop: The “TikTok made me buy it” trend hasn’t necessarily translated to TikTok Shop. In fact, there’s been a significant amount of complaints about Shop ads frequency. It really depends on your category. TikTok Shop is now the ninth-largest online beauty and wellness retailer in the US and the second-largest in the UK, according to a report by Dash Hudson and NielsenIQ. And the company’s also made a concerted effort to focus on small businesses, offering support and resources to help them scale on the platform. But there are also plenty of existing ecommerce competitors and new contenders (have you seen this Roblox news?!) in the space, making the future of Shop its murkiest initiative.
A TikTok Court Case Timeline
The showdown between TikTok and the US government begins Monday, September 16. That’s when oral arguments are expected to happen in the potential ban case.
Earlier this year, President Biden signed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which would force a TikTok sale or potential ban. ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, promptly countersued the government.
It’s actually been a feud brewing since at least 2020. And it could stretch on even longer, speculated The Information’s Kaya Yurieff, who wrote that company leaders believe there is a possibility for TikTok to negotiate a solution with the next presidential administration and will wait until after the US election in November to do so.
🗓️ Aug 2020 Then president Donald Trump signed an executive order mandating the sale or shutdown of TikTok
🗓️ June 2021 President Joe Biden reversed Trump's effort to ban TikTok, calling for a broader review of foreign-owned apps
🗓️ Mar 2023 TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is grilled at the U.S. Capitol
🗓️ Feb 2024 Biden's campaign joined TikTok (now rebranded as Kamala HQ)
🗓️ Mar 2024 Trump argued that a TikTok ban would give Facebook too much power
🗓️ Apr 2024 Congress passed PAFACA requiring ByteDance to divest TikTok by January 19, 2025
🗓️ May 2024 ByteDance sued the federal government over the potential ban
🗓️ June 2024 Trump joined TikTok
🗓️ July 2024 Vice President and 2024 presidential nominee Kamala Harris joined TikTok
🗓️ Aug 2024 The Justice Department sued TikTok and ByteDance for widespread violations of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act
🗓️ Sept 2024 Support for a TikTok ban has declined to 32% among U.S. adults, according to Pew Research Center
Related: Transcripts Reveal New Notes on TikTok’s US Security Risk
📲 Meta Updates
Spotted: Some New Zealand users are getting Instagram notifications when people pinch and zoom on their photos! (Note: Adam Mosseri has since said this is a hoax)
Instagram launched custom cutout stickers for DMs that you can create using photos or videos from your camera roll. You’ll also be able to edit photos by drawing on them or adding stickers before sending them via DM.
Meta teamed up with Snapchat and TikTok as part of a new mental health initiative called Thrive meant to prevent suicide or self-harm content spreading across the platforms.
📲 YouTube Updates
YouTube announced that international character handles have been used by over 19 million creators since their introduction in June. Creators can now customize their handles by choosing from 75 languages (including English).
YouTube rolled out its “Add Yours” sticker to all Shorts users.
📲 Snapchat Updates
Snapchat is testing a new experience for older teens. Users 16+ will be able to post content to a new, publicly viewable, content page. Public Stories will be recommended to Snapchatters who are already their friends or followers or with whom they share mutual friends.
🏆 ✨ INSIDE THE ASIAN CREATOR AWARDS 2024
The first-ever Asian Creator Awards, presented by Kajabi, took place Thursday, September 12, in LA.
The inaugural event, which is expected to become an annual tradition, was dedicated to celebrating the best creators and creator economy leaders in the AAPI community.
🏆 HONOREES
Vivian Tu, aka @YourRichBFF, was honored as Creator of the Year. Tu most recently wrote the New York Times bestselling book, Rich AF, and has been featured on Forbes 30 under 30 list.
Other winners Thursday night included Leenda Dong (Comedy); Lorraine Lee (Business) and Chloe Shih & Eric Wei (Podcast Co-Hosts), among others.
👥 WHO WAS THERE
Award show mastermind — and renowned keynote speaker — Jerry Won emceed the show, which took place at the newly renovated Intercrew in Koreatown.
The awards show was kept intentionally intimate — feeling more like a friendly dinner party than stuffy ceremony — and brought together a diverse crowd of creators including Jean Kang (LinkedIn creator), Cherie Brooke Luo (Instagram and YouTube creator) and Katherine Pan (Twitch streamer), alongside creator economy executives like Creator Logic’s Avi Gandhi and Stan’s John Hu.
🪩 🏢 🚕 UPCOMING EVENTS
📌 The Emmy Awards air on ABC Sept. 15; WATCH + MEME
📌 TwitchCon San Diego takes place Sept. 20-22; RSVP
📌 Pinterest Presents takes place online Oct. 1; JOIN + LEARN
See more IRL and online events in the ICYMI Events Database!
📊 DATA DROP
Report: 73% of US Gen Zers say they make online purchases from creators, compared with 66% of millennials and 59% of adult consumers overall, according to June 2024 data from LTK reported by eMarketer.
📢 QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“We found a consistent negative impact on time spent on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube across all three mental health dimensions. Conversely, spending time on Snapchat positively affected friendship closeness and well-being but had no significant impact on self-esteem.”
-via The University of Amsterdam report Social Media Use Leads to Negative Mental Health Outcomes for Most Adolescents shared by Snapchat
👀 IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
A rage baiting experiment generated more reach on Threads -Social Media Today
Nearly two-thirds of Snapchat social shoppers buy at least one product per month on the platform -eMarketer
Here’s how to create and share video on LinkedIn -Buffer
Why workplaces need Gen Z influencers -McKinsey
More Gen. Z and Millennials ‘feel most like themselves’ online rather than offline -The New Consumer
Teens are making thousands by debating Trump vs. Harris on TikTok -Rest of World
A mysterious influencer network pushed sexual smears of Harris -Semafor
Influencer Fraud And Deceptive Reviews—3 strategies to help brands comply with government guidelines -AdAge
The Webby Awards have introduced a new dedicated suite of honors recognizing Creators -Webbys
NASA invited creators to attend the launch of a spacecraft from the Kennedy Space Center. RSVPs have closed but they plan to host more creator events moving forward -NASA