Influencers ‘very resilient’ in considering migration from TikTok amid possible ban: Content creator

Content Creator Marjan Tabibzada and LTK Co-Founder and President Amber Venz Box discuss the implications of a potential TikTok ban amid TikTok CEO Shou Zi's first appearance in front of Congress.

Video transcript

- TikTok CEO Shou Chew in the hot seat today, indeed. Congress grilling the social media exec over whether or not the app can be trusted. 150 million Americans use the app. Many of those Americans are content creators who earn a significant portion of their income through TikTok. So what's at stake if a ban gets through?

Joining us now is makeup content creator Marjan Tabibzada, who has 3.6 million TikTok followers. Also with us is LTK co-founder and president, Amber Venz Box. The LTK platform lets content creators make their post shoppable, earning them money for branded content. Nice to see you both. Appreciate you being here.

Marjan, I want to start with you. You both watched the hearing today, and we want to get both of your reaction to it. Marjan, first with you, how did that make you feel today?

MARJAN TABIBZADA: Well, thank you so much for having me. So yeah, I watched the live briefly on TikTok actually, on your guys' Yahoo Finance Live that was going on. I just really wish that they would let him speak a little bit more because it would have been nice to hear him-- you know, nice to hear him and basically hear everything that he had to say.

From the videos that I did see, I feel like after watching CEO Chew talk with Congress. I believe you know he's very open to working with the US in making TikTok more safe when it comes to privacy and safety.

- Amber, how did you feel watching today?

AMBER VENZ BOX: It was a monumental day for our industry. And at LTK, we really welcome the regulation that we are hopeful might come behind this. I think that it's looking beyond TikTok into all of the platforms, I think they would even welcome that regulation themselves.

We see it as a future-proofing exercise, and making a place where my young children can have platforms to go to in the future that are productive, educational, allow them to connect with people. And so I was actually excited to see the enthusiasm and the preparedness of the speakers today.

- Marjan, you have a massive, massive presence on TikTok-- over 3 million followers-- 3.6 million followers. I want to play for everyone a mashup of some of the videos that you post on TikTok.

MARJAN TABIBZADA: To all the people who suck at makeup and want to get better but don't have anywhere to go, I'm going to help you. Get ready with me for my parents anniversary dinner. Foundation, I'm using my current favorite, the Givenchy Prisme Libre.

I think I found the reddest lipstick ever and it's from the drugstore. Let's test this out. This lipstick is $3 from the brand Essence, and oh my goodness, I'm obsessed.

- So Marjan, full confession here-- I was watching your videos before you came on the show, and I got a little lost because it is very addicting, really speaking to some of the issues that TikTok CEO was facing today. If TikTok was to be banned in the US, what impact would it have on you as a creator?

MARJAN TABIBZADA: You know, my biggest concern about a potential TikTok ban as a creator is just seeing all the time and effort that I've put into building a community on TikTok go away. You know, I absolutely love TikTok and how well the platform brings everyone together. I've met some of the best people who I now consider great friends. And overall, I would just hate to see it go.

- And Amber, what are your thoughts about a ban? What would it mean to your bottom line and to the creator economy here in the United States?

AMBER VENZ BOX: Well, we started our business back in 2011 so that me and my friends could make money online as fashion bloggers. And over the last decade, what we've seen is a history of platforms either dissolving, either because they're culturally less relevant, or because there's engineering changes.

You think about like Vine being shut down, or algorithm changes, or deprecation of certain features on platforms. And so during that time, our creators have really successfully migrated their business.

And actually, Marjan, is a great example of that. She has almost a million followers or more on every single platform. So she's a really talented individual who can use those skillsets on whatever platform is next.

And LTK was built specifically, engineered specifically for that migration over time to future-proof our creator's businesses. So it's a place that's differentiated. It's focused on shopping. They bring their followers there. So whether they stay on the platforms that they are today or they find something new, they have a home-base to bring them to that allows them to support themselves and their families through their unique passions.

- Marjan, you've got a heck of a lot of followers. I would guess that you would take a pretty big hit money-wise, financially if TikTok were banned. What does that look like?

MARJAN TABIBZADA: Personally, I don't think my income would personally be affected drastically, possibly between 20% to 30%, if anything. But at the end of the day, the value is in the content creator, it's in the content. And brands know that and they will work with you on different platforms as they already do, so.

- Amber, what platform best emulates TikTok, and which platform do you think would stand to benefit the most if there were a ban?

AMBER VENZ BOX: Yeah, well I'm glad that you call out the content type on TikTok because specifically they've really changed the paradigm in the entertainment space. TikTok is the one that brought really short-form video to life and also AI-driven feeds, which we see emulated across large and scaled products today. And I expect for that to continue to be in future chapters of the platforms that we're seeing.

Today the products that most likely emulate that product would be Instagram Reels or on YouTube Shorts, but there will always be a next platform as well. And I expect for it to be kind of backwards integrated into other existing platforms.

- Marjan, what's second best? If TikTok were to be banned, where would you, where would some of your followers, your massive following go?

MARJAN TABIBZADA: So I feel like I would personally do exactly what I am doing. The beauty of being a content creator is being able to do it on any platform. I have a pretty big following on Instagram, as well as on YouTube. This personally wouldn't change my content.

I also don't believe that if the platform is gone this would affect brands or their budgets. Brands will still be working with creators on other platforms. But again, I personally would go back to Instagram, or there's YouTube Shorts, there's Snapchat. There are other platforms.

- Amber, one thing is clear. We do not know what the Chinese Communist government is doing with the user data of 150 million Americans. But it's also pretty clear they could do whatever they want with it if and when they decide to weaponize that user data. How concerned are you about that?

AMBER VENZ BOX: Well, I believe that government exists to protect its citizens. But I also believe with that our creators are very resilient in the same way that she was just speaking to, where they're going to move to whatever platform that their consumers want to be at.

I think that consumers have been now trained to use a certain period of their day on free entertainment. And so just because a certain platform is taken away, I think that they're going to still want that and they're going to find a new home for it, and creators are as well.

- But you're not concerned about privacy and about the user data, and what the Chinese government could do with it?

AMBER VENZ BOX: Certainly. And I think that we've seen that our other Western partners, for example, in Europe, starting back in 2017, around the time of when Mark Zuckerberg was actually testifying, they introduced GDPR, which was a protection for their own people around their data and their privacy, and they've really set the standard in the Western world for what that looks like.

I'm personally very motivated that our own domestic government could be doing the same for our people. And I think it's important to the future of our mental health, of our cyber health, of the health of our entire country. And so I look to the government to protect its citizens, which is what I believe that they are charged to do.

- Heard that from Shou Chew today as well, just talking about some of the inefficiencies or some of the US social media platforms falling short. Marjan, I'm going to ask you a very similar question. How worried-- are you worried about the access of the data and everything that TikTok has on you?

MARJAN TABIBZADA: You know, I genuinely completely agree with Amber. I'm on the same page as her. And I feel like if it is something that is at a great risk for all of us, then it only makes sense. But I do believe that the way the CEO talked today with Congress, I feel like he's definitely open to working with the US and making it more safe than it already is, especially when it comes to our privacy and safety.

- All right, Marjan Tabibzada and Amber Venz Box, we really appreciate both of you being with us today. Thanks so much.