TikTok
Updated on 4 April at 6:00am ET
TikTok delivers more than just entertainment: it fuels significant economic growth for more than seven million businesses and the U.S. economy as a whole by helping to support more than $24 billion in gross domestic product (GDP), and more than 224,000 American jobs, delivering a competitive edge to small businesses across the nation.
Today, Oxford Economics released "TikTok: Helping Grow Small and Midsized Businesses and Delivering Value for Consumers Across the United States," a new report that quantifies the economic impact of small businesses using TikTok.
Explore the findings on TikTok's Economic Impact Report website.
According to research conducted in the fall of 2023, SMB investments in paid advertising and marketing on TikTok drove nearly $15 billion in revenue in the US in 2023. SMBs on TikTok also placed a significant value on the free services provided by TikTok, which help them grow organically. These two value streams together supported a $24.2 billion contribution to the US GDP in 2023.
"Businesses across America depend on TikTok’s unique ability to help them reach otherwise unreachable customers, generate new revenue streams, and drive awareness of their brands, products, and services," said Blake Chandlee, President of Global Business Solutions at TikTok. "This study demonstrates what we at TikTok already knew: it's a game changer for small businesses and has a significant impact on the US Economy."
Felicia Jackson, Owner of CPR Wrap, a patented and disposable CPR template that guides anyone—trained or untrained—as they perform CPR accurately, says TikTok changed her situation: “I could not have done this without the help of TikTok, and I say that and I mean that, and I tell people that all the time,” says Felicia. “It’s amazing. And best yet, two lives have been saved using our product because they saw it and bought it off TikTok.”
Looking back, Felicia happily notes she made “over $300,000 in just two days. I was able to pay myself, pay my employee, and hire another person—TikTok literally saved my company.”
The study also found that nearly 40 percent of SMBs say TikTok is critical to their businesses' existence, which is home to seven million businesses and 170 million active users in the US.
Owner of Crown's Corner Mechanic in Conyers, GA, Desiree Hill aka the "She Mechanic," shared that in less than three years, she became the number one mobile mechanic in five counties, leased a new shop spanning 9,000 square feet and hired five new staff members. “I wouldn’t have been able to do it without TikTok,” she says.
According to Oxford Economics, "We found that the TikTok platform provides substantial benefits to SMBs and supports a significant level of economic activity in the US economy. In just a few years, TikTok has developed into an important tool for entrepreneurs across a wide range of sectors, and from diverse backgrounds, to advertise their goods and services to new customers and grow their businesses."
The research by Oxford Economics also shows:
- 224,000 jobs were supported by SMBs use of TikTok as a platform to grow and expand their business;
- SMBs use of TikTok as an advertising and marketing platform supported a total of $5.3 billion in taxes to the US government in 2023; and
- TikTok’s US operations themselves supported an additional $8.5 billion contribution to the GDP, $2 billion in taxes, and 59,000 jobs across the US economy in 2023.
Across the sectors covered in the study, the contribution to GDP from SMBs use of TikTok was highest in the food and beverage industry, supporting $6.4 billion and 73,000 jobs in 2023. GDP support by the health and wellness sector was $3.9 billion, while the business services sector contribution was $3.6 billion, underscoring the diverse range of industries that thrive on TikTok.
“I don’t know what it is about TikTok that has that effect on people, why they want to stick around and support you vs. other platforms, but you can’t find it anywhere else,” said Kristina Molinaro, Owner of Twenty Five and Pine, a furniture shop in Washington Township, Ohio. Were it not for TikTok, she may have never quit her corporate job in the first place. “I was just posting about this one table, which is still our bestseller, and now here we are—not in the basement of our house, but in a commercial space—TikTok has significantly changed our entire business and made us be able to move in, keep going and pay me full-time.”
The study sheds light on TikTok's substantial footprint in the US economy, including detailed information at the local level for 18 states. Explore the report here.
