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Microsoft, Oracle, and billionaire investors are vying for a TikTok buyout, with ByteDance keeping a stake. The deal could reshape TikTok鈥檚 data security and advertising model.

Carina, are we singing similar trends in the UK? Carina Perkins:. Yeah, we're seeing a similar trend in the UK, specifically TikTok is playing a really important role in CPG product discovery for Gen Z. There's a really big food community on TikTok. People sharing recipes and new products, and we've seen a couple of food brands go viral.

On today鈥檚 episode, host Bill Fisher is joined by our analysts Paul Briggs and Man-Chung Cheung and forecasting writer Ethan Cramer-Flood to talk about the TikTok bans currently in place around the world. They consider if the pressure building on TikTok in the US could fan out to other countries.

Music discovery is a significant draw for TikTok users, with 27% of US adults specifically citing the platform as a way to hear new music they haven鈥檛 encountered before. A Kantar study found that 26% of UK Gen Z users use the platform in a similar manner.

Our latest forecast for social network users in Canada highlights a reshuffling of the top five platforms in 2023. Twitter will fall to fifth place, while TikTok will surge into the No. 3 position.

So on the social media side, we've got TikTok Shop that's arrived in the US now and it's been in the UK for a while. That's driving massive traffic. I think I read one Adobe study that said referral traffic from TikTok content to UK retailer websites grew by 378% between January 2022 and May 2023. So that's huge. Sara Lebow:.

TikTok aggressively courts sellers: The company aims to grow its social commerce sales by offering merchants free listings and shipping, along with zero commissions.

On today's podcast episode, in our "Retail Me This, Retail Me That" segment, we discuss the role of the store for the beauty space, Walmart's involvement in this product category, and how TikTok is changing things. Then, for "Pop-Up Rankings," we rank the top three social media trends that have influenced beauty products and how they're marketed. Join our analyst Sara Lebow as she hosts analysts Sky Canaves and Carina Perkins.

Some companies like British retailer Asos have opted to focus on loyalty programs instead in the hopes of driving recurring sales. Others have been pulled to Meta platforms and TikTok, leaning on their large audiences and shoppable commerce features instead.

50% of Americans support a government ban on TikTok, with higher support among Republicans and older Americans. Continued scrutiny could be TikTok鈥檚 downfall.

Respondents represented Australia, Canada, the UK, and the US.

ByteDance is dead set on building up TikTok Shop in the US: Its aggressive moves to build a robust shopping service could lead to a $500 million loss this year.

Despite its political challenges, TikTok will lead the world in ad revenue growth. TikTok and Mercado Libre will set the pace globally, though at vastly different scales. TikTok faces a ban in the lucrative US market, but unless and until that happens, we foresee continued booming growth for the ByteDance subsidiary.

In the UK, X鈥檚 total revenues, which include revenues from non-ad products, plummeted by 66.3% YoY in 2023, according to financial filings made by X in April 2025. Total headcount in the UK also fell from 399 to 114 that year due to Musk鈥檚 cost-cutting measures. Marketers in the UK tend to be more concerned about brand safety and suitability than those in the US.

As Temu and Shein slow US activity, Europe and the UK are emerging as fallback markets, where both brands are still advertising heavily.

The trend: Younger generations continue to prioritize wellness more than older consumers and are purchasing products across a range of health and well-being categories, according to McKinsey鈥檚 recently published Future of Wellness survey of more than 9,000 consumers across China, Germany, the US, and the UK.

On today's podcast episode (part 1), we discuss the details of what's going on with a potential TikTok ban, how grave of a threat TikTok might be, whether Americans actually want a ban, and the likelihood of TikTok getting banned this time around (out of 10). Tune in to the discussion with our analysts Minda Smiley and Max Willens.

Carina, what does this trend look like in the UK? Is it similar? Carina Perkins:. Yes, we're seeing a similar trend in the UK.