TikTok ban: Who wins if platform is outlawed to American users?

U.S technology companies including Facebook parent Meta Platforms and Google parent Alphabet are primed to benefit from the potential of an expanded market share if Congress bans Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok.

"Short form video content makers and consumers would migrate immediately to both platforms," said Adam Kobeissi, founder of the financial newsletter, The Kobeissi Letter.

"Already, Meta and Alphabet are in second and third place behind TikTok for relative content, with Meta capitalizing on short form video through Instagram Reels and Alphabet doing the same through YouTube shorts," he added. "However, a TikTok ban would critically mark an escalation of some major economic tensions between China and the U.S. in a time when the economy really cannot afford it."

"If this results in sanctions and other means of economic warfare, the seemingly never-ending fight against inflation will be exponentially harder to tame," Koebeissi finished.