YOUTUBE is running ads on TikTok targeting the app’s content creators, an effort to lure these valuable users to the Google-owned rival and capitalise on TikTok’s uncertain future.
“I never thought in my life I would be a YouTuber; it was literally my dream in high school, and now I’m getting gifted from them!” a creator said in one sponsored post that YouTube recently ran on TikTok, during which the creator showed off swag he received from YouTube.
“Get on YouTube, find your community, live your best life,” he continued.
YouTube is the latest TikTok competitor to try to capitalise on the app’s looming US ban, which could go into effect in early April. Meta Platforms’s Instagram announced a new video editing tool in January, and X also teased a new video tab as part of an effort to win over TikTok’s content creators.
The app was initially supposed to be banned on Jan 19, but President Donald Trump has since delayed enforcement of that shutdown by 75 days to give TikTok’s China-based parent company, ByteDance, more time to sell its wildly popular video app in a way that addresses US national security concerns.
Google would be one of the biggest beneficiaries of a ban in the US. Both its flagship video service YouTube and its TikTok copycat, YouTube Shorts, would likely see an uptick in traffic if TikTok goes away. Google also plays an unusual role in TikTok’s potential ban because it runs one of two mobile app stores controlling whether people in the US can download the video app. It has blocked TikTok from its Google Play store since the divest-or-ban law went into effect Jan 19.
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It’s notable, however, that TikTok is willing to accept ad dollars from one of its fiercest competitors promoting a message aimed at undercutting its business.
One promoted post viewed by Bloomberg included the caption, “Getting started on YouTube has never been easier, watch your passion pay off on YouTube.” It has been liked thousands of times.
Google did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for TikTok declined to comment. TikTok does not operate a US ad library that would include information about when the ads started, or how much YouTube has paid for them.
While app store providers such as Google and Apple have blocked TikTok from their stores since late January, other American tech companies such as Oracle have worked to keep TikTok operational with Trump’s assurances that the existing law will not be enforced until April. On Tuesday (Feb 4), in retaliation to Trump’s newly imposed trade tariffs on China, Beijing announced a new antitrust investigation into Google. It’s also considering opening a similar probe into Apple.
While YouTube is trying to cash in on TikTok’s possible downfall, YouTube’s most-followed and top-earning creator, MrBeast, is in conversations with bidders and investor groups angling to buy TikTok’s US operations. MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, hopes to attach himself to the eventual front-runner in negotiations on a TikTok deal, a spokesperson told Bloomberg, though ByteDance has maintained publicly that it is not entertaining any such sale. BLOOMBERG
