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TikTok’s ethos and community are unique. But the short-form video field is crowded.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
The Supreme Court ruled to uphold a TikTok ban — and several apps are vying for its crown.
Sister app Lemon8 has soared in popularity but is likely to get the ax, too.
Meta, YouTube, and Snapchat have competed in short-form video for years, and RedNote recently attracted US users.
The app is set to be yanked from US app stores on January 19, after the Supreme Court ruled to uphold a law on Friday forcing China-based ByteDance to divest its ownership of Tiktok or face a ban.
If the app goes dark, US users will have to look elsewhere for a short-form video fix. TikTok’s ethos and community are unique, but competing formats exist on the world’s biggest social-media apps, and are also offered by emerging competitors.
Here’s who is — and who’s not — in the running.
Meta, YouTube, and Snapchat have been competing in short-form video for years
Meta’s Reels platform on Instagram would likely get a boost if TikTok goes dark.
CHRIS DELMAS/AFP via Getty Images
Data shows that new apps often struggle to gain long-term traction when they have well-established rivals. And Meta, YouTube, and Snapchat have all been competing in the short-form space for years.
Snapchat, for its part, launched a TikTok counterpart called Spotlight in 2020, offering payouts to get creators to post.
Meanwhile, LinkedIn has more recently targeted TikTok by encouraging influencers to post short-form content. Some have told Business Insider that they’ve seen engagement boosts as a result.
Chinese app Rednote has seen a surge in popularity
Americans have been exploring Chinese TikTok rival RedNote in recent days.
Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Xiaohongshu, also known as RedNote, another Chinese social app — which functions like Instagram and TikTok but with more commerce features — has recently surged in popularity, with some TikTok users learning Mandarin to make the transition.
It could, however, also be subject to the same divest-or-ban law as TikTok if the US government chose to target it.
Downloads have spiked for Texas-based Clapper
Clapper has ranked highly in the Apple App Store.
Matt Cardy/Getty Images, Clapper
Clapper, a Texas-based challenger, was founded in 2020, when the idea of a Tiktok ban was first tossed around by the Trump administration.
The app at one point reached third place in the free iPhone app download charts, with Clapper seeing an uptick in downloads whenever the news of a Tiktok ban again makes headlines.
Triller has long positioned itself as a TikTok rival
Triller recently hired a former TikTok product head to run the video app.
Rafael Henrique/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
Triller has long sought to position itself as an alternative to TikTok — and currently offers a tool to help creators save their videos.
Triller has gone through a series of strategy shifts over the years. After several false starts, it went public late last year through a reverse merger with a Hong Kong-based company called AGBA Group Holding Limited.
It recently hired former TikTok product head Sean Kim to run its video app, as well as several other subsidiaries.
Apps like Whatnot could fill a shopping void
Whatnot raised $265 million in funding in January.
It’s not the only one in the space, however.Some of its competitors include Flip and Complex Shop, formerly known as NTWRK. Flip, which raised $144 million last April at a $1 billion valuation, according to Bloomberg, launched in 2019 and enables users to post short, shoppable reviews.
Whatnot also made headlines after closing a $265 million funding round earlier this month at a $5 billion valuation. The app hosts livestreams across categories like fashion, collectibles, and storage unit finds.
TikTok’s sister app, Lemon8, would likely get the ax too
The fate of ByteDance-owned Lemon8 is unclear.
Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty Images
TikTok sister app, Lemon8, has soared to the top of the app charts in recent weeks. Lemon8 is reminiscent of Pinterest and contains a mix of photos and videos.
However, given that the law specifically mentions ByteDance, the parent company of the two apps, Lemon8 would likely be banned along with TikTok.
Christopher Krepich, the communications director for the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, previously told Forbes the bill would ban Lemon8 unless ByteDance divested.
This article was originally published by Geoff Weiss,Sarah Perkel at All Content from Business Insider – Read this article and more at (https://www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-alternatives-replace-app-if-banned-short-form-video-2025-1).
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