Oh No, I’m Devastated, Dancers Generator, and Lemon8

⚖️ Montana May Soon Become First State to Impose Total TikTok Ban: Montana’s GOP-controlled legislature has passed a bill that would completely ban the use of TikTok in the state, going further than almost half of US states’ restrictions that only prohibit TikTok on government-owned devices. The proposal, which needs to be passed by the House and signed by Republican Governor Greg Gianforte, would go into effect in January 2024 and be revoked if Congress bans TikTok or if it cuts its ties to China. Supporters of the Montana legislation cite Chinese regulations that mandate companies to assist with state intelligence operations and TikTok’s admission that it fired four workers for accessing information about two journalists to determine the source of a leaked story about the company. TikTok has been banned from government-owned devices in several nations, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union. 🍋 Viral success of Lemon8 shows just how pointless TikTok ban would be: ByteDance’s new app, Lemon8, which uses the same recommendation algorithm as TikTok and offers fashion, beauty, food, and travel content, has found early success in the US, showing how banning TikTok would not actually solve anything. Even if TikTok gets banned, ByteDance is showing that it’s willing and able to keep introducing new apps to keep growing, experts say. The rise of Lemon8 illustrates how difficult it would be to totally unwind the influence that Chinese companies now have in the American market. Bills like the RESTRICT Act are being considered in Congress, which would ban TikTok and other social media apps from countries deemed to pose national security concerns. 🎥 Short-Form for the Long-Haul: The growth of short-form video advertising may pose a challenge for TikTok in the long run, as more competition emerges from platforms such as Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, and Snapchat’s Spotlight. While ad spending on short-form is on the rise, it is now being allocated across more platforms than ever before, meaning that TikTok’s ad growth is likely to slow down, as it faces competition for ad dollars. For example, Reels is now in a strong second place to TikTok, and the gap between the two is narrowing. As ad spending is becoming more diversified among these short-form channels, the TikTok-focused mindset that shaped a significant amount of ad spending on short-form in recent years is evolving into something more holistic, and there will be a change eventually.