The US government has been arguing that TikTok poses a threat to national security for quite some time now. According to legislators who are responsible for creating laws in the US, TikTok’s ownership by a Chinese concern is the problem because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up allowing the app to spy on Americans.
The CCP government is notorious for being involved in all Chinese companies, so many would say that these concerns are well warranted. In spite of the fact that this is the case, Chinese consumers don’t seem to think that this behavior from American legislators is fair in the slightest.
According to data coming out of the Morning Consult, it appears that majority of consumers who are residing within China are keeping up to date with reports of a potential TikTok ban in the US. 52% of consumers in China who responded to a survey said that they are watching the news surrounding this ban in order to find out what’s going on.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that Chinese consumers tend to have a different view of the looming ban on TikTok. This ban is starting to seem more and more likely by the day. In the opinion of Chinese consumers, America is only trying to ban TikTok in order to curtail China’s growing soft power around the globe.
Suspicion among Chinese consumers has a definite root cause. America has a reputation for stopping at nothing to preserve its own seemingly unassailable global hegemony. Banning an app that threatens to upset the supremacy of its own social media platforms, many of which are struggling right now, seems to be right of out America’s playbook.
It should be mentioned that there is still a long way to go before a ban can be passed. However, should the ban come into fruition, American companies might find that fewer Chinese consumers are buying their products than might have been the case otherwise.
According to the data that has been presented, nearly two out of every three Chinese consumers are saying that they will start boycotting American products if a ban on TikTok ever gets imposed. Losing access to 65% of the Chinese market will be a death blow to many American corporations that rely on the sizeable consumer sector in the East Asian nation for a hefty chunk of their quarterly revenues.
However, the numbers might be exaggerating the story. For example, just 15% of Chinese consumers stated that they are hearing a huge quantity of news regarding this issue. What’s more, interest in a potential TikTok ban in the US is virtually nonexistent among Gen Z consumers on the Chinese mainland.
This seems to indicate that the most prized sector of China’s consumer market, namely Gen Z, will be unperturbed by any kind of ban. It will be interesting to see if the ban is imposed in the near future, as well as what the fallout from such a ban might look like. There is a chance that it may increase tensions between the two global superpowers.
Read next: The Hidden Costs of Holding onto Outdated Tech in the Workplace
The CCP government is notorious for being involved in all Chinese companies, so many would say that these concerns are well warranted. In spite of the fact that this is the case, Chinese consumers don’t seem to think that this behavior from American legislators is fair in the slightest.
According to data coming out of the Morning Consult, it appears that majority of consumers who are residing within China are keeping up to date with reports of a potential TikTok ban in the US. 52% of consumers in China who responded to a survey said that they are watching the news surrounding this ban in order to find out what’s going on.
With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that Chinese consumers tend to have a different view of the looming ban on TikTok. This ban is starting to seem more and more likely by the day. In the opinion of Chinese consumers, America is only trying to ban TikTok in order to curtail China’s growing soft power around the globe.
Suspicion among Chinese consumers has a definite root cause. America has a reputation for stopping at nothing to preserve its own seemingly unassailable global hegemony. Banning an app that threatens to upset the supremacy of its own social media platforms, many of which are struggling right now, seems to be right of out America’s playbook.
It should be mentioned that there is still a long way to go before a ban can be passed. However, should the ban come into fruition, American companies might find that fewer Chinese consumers are buying their products than might have been the case otherwise.
According to the data that has been presented, nearly two out of every three Chinese consumers are saying that they will start boycotting American products if a ban on TikTok ever gets imposed. Losing access to 65% of the Chinese market will be a death blow to many American corporations that rely on the sizeable consumer sector in the East Asian nation for a hefty chunk of their quarterly revenues.
However, the numbers might be exaggerating the story. For example, just 15% of Chinese consumers stated that they are hearing a huge quantity of news regarding this issue. What’s more, interest in a potential TikTok ban in the US is virtually nonexistent among Gen Z consumers on the Chinese mainland.
This seems to indicate that the most prized sector of China’s consumer market, namely Gen Z, will be unperturbed by any kind of ban. It will be interesting to see if the ban is imposed in the near future, as well as what the fallout from such a ban might look like. There is a chance that it may increase tensions between the two global superpowers.
Read next: The Hidden Costs of Holding onto Outdated Tech in the Workplace
