TikTok’s not-so-secret weapon to grab new users ahead of its looming U.S. ban: money.
The popular app has started offering existing users $50 to recruit new users to TikTok, and up to an additional $350 in bonus bucks if they’re able to convince more friends to join. Some TikTok users have seen the “limited time offer” promo under their “for you” tab on the app.
Bloomberg was the first outlet to spot the cash-for-recruitment plan on Tuesday.
The promo comes as TikTok is scrambling to remain active in the States. TikTok is set to be banned from the U.S. on January 19, 2025 — one day before president-elect Donald Trump retakes office — unless Bytedance, its China-based parent company, divests from its American operations. The TikTok ban was initially floated during Trump’s first administration, before ultimately being passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden earlier this year.
On Monday, TikTok and Bytedance filed an emergency injunction, calling for an appeals court to temporarily block the law that is set to ban the app.
The delay, TikTok argued in its filing, would “create breathing room” for the U.S. Supreme Court to “conduct an orderly review” of the law, as well as give the incoming Trump administration time to evaluate the matter. TikTok pointed to president-elect Donald Trump’s comment earlier this year that he was going to “save TikTok” in its filing.
TikTok, via its cash offer for existing users, may believe boosting its user count as much as possible in the weeks ahead will make it tougher to ban. The app has 170 million monthly users in the U.S., according to its Monday filing.
The chief concern U.S. lawmakers have with TikTok is that it doubles as a spyware app for the Chinese government; TikTok, according to Chinese law, is required to share user data with China’s communist government, if it is asked to.
TikTok has previously argued the ban would “trample” the First Amendment right to free speech of its users.
Most Americans don’t seem to be too concerned with China’s government having easy access to their data, though. Only 32% of Americans are in favor of the U.S. government banning TikTok, according to a Pew Research Center survey in September of 10,678 respondents aged 18 and older. That’s down from 50% who supported a ban in March 2023 — and TikTok’s users are even less inclined to support a ban, with 61% of U.S. users opposing it. (Among those surveyed, 51% leaned towards Democrats politically, while 46% said they were Republican-leaning.)
