{"id":460001,"date":"2025-12-20T12:22:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T12:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/460001\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T12:22:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T12:22:12","slug":"tiktok-creators-welcome-deal-to-keep-app-in-the-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/460001\/","title":{"rendered":"TikTok creators welcome deal to keep app in the U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Only a few years ago, Keith Lee was a professional MMA fighter, doing food delivery and making social media videos to ease his social anxiety.<\/p>\n

On Thursday night, however, Lee found himself under the glare of bright lights and walking the red carpet outside the historic Hollywood Palladium on Sunset Boulevard about to be recognized as TikTok\u2019s \u201cCreator of the Year.\u201d <\/p>\n

He and hundreds of other creators had gathered for TikTok\u2019s first American awards show. And they had good reason to celebrate.<\/p>\n

Only a few minutes before the start of the inaugural show, they got word about a deal that would allow TikTok to keep operating in the U.S.<\/a> through a joint venture controlled by a group of U.S. investors that includes tech giant Oracle Corp. TikTok confirmed the deal in an email to employees and said it is expected to close next month.<\/p>\n

\u201c[TikTok] is the best way to reach people and I know so many people who rely on it to support their families,\u201d said Lee, who has 17.3 million followers of his casual restaurant reviews. \u201cFor me, it\u2019s my career now so I can\u2019t imagine it not being around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Creators \u2014 many of whom are based in Southern California \u2014 rely on the app as a key source of income, while businesses and brands turn to the platform and its influencers to promote their products.<\/p>\n

Many had worried that the app might disappear after the Supreme Court upheld a ban on the platform because of national security concerns raised by President Trump in 2020.<\/p>\n

Trump subsequently allowed TikTok, which has offices in Culver City, to keep operating in the U.S. and in September signed an executive order<\/a> outlining the new joint venture.<\/p>\n

Comedy creator Adam W., who attended the awards show, called the news \u201cgame changing.\u201d<\/p>\n

With 22.6 million followers on TikTok, Adam W. has amassed a massive audience for his videos that parody pop culture trends. <\/p>\n

In one, he\u2019s a contestant on \u201cThe Bachelor,\u201d surrounded by a line of lookalike blond models; in another, he\u2019s drinking matcha lattes with Will Smith.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s so good to hear,\u201d said Adam W. of the new ownership. \u201cSo many people are able to make careers off of TikTok. There\u2019s so many people out there who go to TikTok to get away from their reality and it means a lot to them, so I think it\u2019s really valuable for us to have.\u201d<\/p>\n

TikTok said the awards show is intended to celebrate the influencers who\u2019ve helped transform the app into a global force that has shaped the way younger Americans shop and consume entertainment.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou represent a truly global community of over 1 billion people on TikTok,\u201d Kim Farrell, the app\u2019s global head of creators, said at the event. \u201cThis year, you showed the world just how much impact creators have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the historic moment, the awards show was not without technical glitches. Screens that were intended to display clips of contestants and visuals during speeches were dark the entire night.<\/p>\n

The two-hour show, in which creators received awards in several categories, featured a range of skits parodying TikTok cultural moments, from Jools Lebron telling the crowd to \u201cbe demure,\u201d to Rei Ami of K-Pop Demon Hunters shooting a Labubu cannon into the crowd.<\/p>\n

\u201cTikTok definitely changed my life,\u201d Lee said in an interview. \u201cI always planned my life around food, so I\u2019m blessed to just turn the camera on and do the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new ownership of TikTok should allow the app to rebound after it lost market share amid uncertainty over its future, said Max Willens, an analyst at EMarketer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis past year, because a lot of advertisers weren\u2019t really sure whether TikTok was going to stay or go, it did kind of slow the momentum that we had seen on that platform,\u201d Willens said. \u201cWe think that moving forward that is going to wind up just being a blip.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Only a few years ago, Keith Lee was a professional MMA fighter, doing food delivery and making social…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":460002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[23038,201904,1582,276,210047,17266,4537,3853,19226,37714,120242,52721,2961,224,5337,3546,12645,1807,210046,1439],"class_list":{"0":"post-460001","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-app","9":"tag-award-show","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-comedy-creator-adam-w","13":"tag-contestant","14":"tag-crowd","15":"tag-deal","16":"tag-few-year","17":"tag-influencer","18":"tag-joint-venture","19":"tag-keith-lee","20":"tag-la","21":"tag-los-angeles","22":"tag-losangeles","23":"tag-people","24":"tag-platform","25":"tag-president-trump","26":"tag-tiktok-creator","27":"tag-u-s"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115751875013589072","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}