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The implementation of TikTok's "ban order" in the United States has progressed rapidly in a short period of time. On March 5 local time, bipartisan members of the U.S. Congress formally proposed a bill requiring ByteDance to divest control of TikTok within 165 days, which was quickly supported by the White House; two days later, the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee passed the proposal with a unanimous vote of 50 to 0. Last night, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill by a vote of 325:65. The bill still needs to be passed by the U.S. Senate and signed by President Biden to take effect. Although the "ban order" has not yet been officially implemented, with the instigation of the House of Representatives, TikTok, which is on the brink of life and death, has undoubtedly taken another step forward. In response to the vote, TikTok issued a statement saying that the legislative process was secret and the bill was forced through for only one reason: it was a ban. "We hope that the Senate will consider the facts, listen to the voters, and realize the impact of this bill on the economy, 7 million small businesses, and the 170 million Americans who use TikTok." The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also responded to this matter. Spokesperson Wang Wenbin pointed out: "This practice of bullying when unable to win in fair competition disrupts the normal business activities of enterprises, damages the confidence of international investors in the investment environment, and undermines the normal international economic and trade order. It will eventually backfire on the United States itself." According to industry reports, after the results of the House of Representatives vote came out, TikTok told employees in an internal memo, "Our strategy remains unchanged, and we still believe that the best way to address national security issues is to adopt a transparent, US-based protection approach to US user data and systems under strong third-party oversight, review and verification." TikTok stressed that the company is planning to lobby the U.S. Senate not to pass the bill . "While we expected the result, I want to emphasize again that the votes of the committee and the House of Representatives are just the beginning of a long process, not the end." Although TikTok employees have some concerns about this incident, they are generally accustomed to it and are most concerned about job security. It is reported that the frequent threats of bans and rumors in recent years have gradually made TikTok employees numb, and many people still insist that the bill will eventually be overturned as before. As TikTok employees said, last year the governor of Montana signed a TikTok ban, which TikTok won on the grounds that the ban was unconstitutional. Going back further, Trump also signed a document during his tenure to push TikTok to separate from ByteDance, but it eventually came to nothing. But in fact, the situation is not as optimistic as expected. Industry insiders said that what Trump signed before was just an executive order, while what Biden is about to sign now is a bill enacted by the legislature. Once legislation is passed, if the president requires similar overseas applications to be separated from their parent companies, there will be a law to follow. At present, this bill that directly attacks the lifeblood of TikTok has already received the support of multiple political forces in the United States, and President Biden has also publicly stated that he will sign it immediately once Congress passes it. This means that after the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the House of Representatives voted in favor of the bill, the Senate's vote will be final. In contrast, there are objections from the Senate, and the Senate attaches more importance to personal opinions, so there are still many uncertainties as to whether it will be implemented. It is understood that the voting battle line in the Senate is longer, so TikTok can still buy more time to argue against the ban. Recently, there are reports that CEO Zhou Shouzi has arrived in the United States to launch a final lobbying effort on the divestiture bill.
According to the latest news, Zhou Shouzi released a video today, claiming that TikTok will not stop speaking for its users, and the company will not stop speaking for its users, and will continue to strive to protect the platform, including exercising legal rights and encouraging users to exercise their constitutional rights. In addition, TikTok also tried to "win over the hearts of the people" by pushing pop-up messages to more than 170 million American users, guiding them to call members of Congress and ask them to withdraw the bill to shut down TikTok. However, as far as the House of Representatives vote was concerned, it was obviously ineffective. In November seven years ago, ByteDance acquired TikTok to accelerate its globalization journey. However, within two years, TikTok, which was too eye-catching, was targeted by the United States and experienced multiple ban crises. Under the wave of globalization, more and more Chinese companies are going overseas and shining on the international stage. In addition to TikTok, SHEIN , Temu also attracted the world's attention. However, their fates had already diverged at some point - the former was repeatedly suppressed, while the latter had some setbacks along the way but overall it was still going smoothly at this stage. Of course, the difference between the two is that TikToK is positioned as a social application, while SHEIN and Temu are pure e-commerce platforms. Although TikTok is also trying to accelerate the process of e-commerce, it is clear that the suppression from the US government is getting stronger and stronger. It is still unclear whether it can definitely fight back and turn the tide again. It is learned that TikToK's e-commerce business has soared at a lightning speed since last year. After the US site was officially opened to entry in the second half of the year, the number of small stores increased dozens of times. As of November, the monthly GMV has reached nearly US$500 million. In this regard, some sellers admitted that TikTok Shop The popularity of TikTok has obviously stimulated the United States to further control TikTok. From the perspective of sellers, some people believe that this incident will not have much impact on small shops. After the Indonesian turmoil, it was finally successfully resolved by cooperating with local e-commerce platforms. However, some sellers are worried about this. Recently, the traffic bonus of TikTok Shop has attracted a large number of sellers, but under the current ban, many sellers have begun to back off, worried that the operation of their small shops will be affected after the ban is lifted. "TikTok Shop has insufficient prospects and motivation for monetization, and it is difficult for merchants. Overseas returns and exchanges are troublesome and costly, but social e-commerce focuses on impulse purchases, and the return and exchange rate is very high when people calm down." It can be seen that along with the "ban order" comes a growing crisis of trust among sellers. What will be the ultimate fate of TikTok and whether it will have an impact on businesses, we can only wait and see for now.
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