TikTok To Add 25,000 Jobs In US; Why Brands Should Act Now
By John Lods

September 22, 2020

By John Lods

September 22, 2020

Photo taken by Mario Tama / Getty Images.

TikTok released the following memo yesterday, September 21, assuring agency partners of their stability with their U.S. operations and excitement in future growth. 

The memo was distributed in response to pressure from the Trump Administration to find a U.S.-based partner to help alleviate data security concerns related to China’s access to U.S. user data.

Despite what’s in the press, we at Arm Candy are sold on TikTok. We believe the platform is in a prime position to drive value for advertisers and brands right now. Read below for our 6 reasons why you should incorporate TikTok into your brand-building media strategy. 


Hi there,

We’d like to first thank you for your partnership – we understand the uncertainty surrounding the anticipated changes over the past few months, and we are grateful for your support during this time. Today, we’re excited to share that the proposal by TikTok, Oracle, and Walmart will resolve the security concerns of the US Administration and settle questions around TikTok’s future in the US.

After careful consideration about the best path forward, TikTok agreed that Oracle will be our trusted technology provider, responsible for hosting all US user data and securing associated computer systems to ensure US national security requirements are fully satisfied. We are currently working with Walmart on a commercial partnership as well. Both companies will take part in a TikTok Global pre-IPO financing round in which they can take up to a 20% cumulative stake in the company. We will also maintain and expand TikTok Global’s headquarters in the US, while bringing 25,000 jobs across the country.

Rest assured we do not anticipate any disruptions to your campaigns and aim to be collaborative and transparent as we navigate any changes that may occur.

We are so proud of what we’ve built and we are excited to continue supporting our community of 100 million people in the US who love TikTok for connection and entertainment, as well as the hundreds of thousands of businesses and creators who rely upon TikTok to grow their livelihoods and build meaningful careers. We will continue to stay true to our mission, serve our partners and users, and protect user safety on our platform.

Thank you again for your partnership and believing in the TikTok community. We look forward to helping you grow your business on TikTok!

All the best,

TikTok For Business Team


Why we believe TikTok is poised to add value to those who act quickly:

  1. Oracle. An Oracle partnership will enable advertisers who utilize the platform to target based on a variety of segments, including categorical purchase behavior and other actionable affinities. These segments will be a welcome sight to advertisers as social platforms, especially Facebook, have reduced the audiences that an advertiser can leverage in recent years.
  2. Uncertainty. The fact that TikTok is consistently in the news is cause for concern for many large advertisers and has deterred them from using the platform. With large advertisers fearful of committing dollars to the platform, this creates an opportunistic marketplace for smaller advertisers to take advantage of while CPMs are ripe. You can expect $2-$5 CPMs depending on your campaign objective and audience criteria which is highly competitive in comparison to other social media platforms.
  3. Scale. TikTok is growing: the platform has over 100M users in the U.S. and adoption continues to increase. The more users, the more impressions available, meaning the current trend will continue to benefit the advertiser.
  4. First Mover Advantage. TikTok is still very fresh. Thus, people are less accustomed to ads on the platform, allowing them to be more receptive of the messages they do see. This creates a great opportunity for companies to quickly establish their brands with a highly engaged audience.
  5. Credit. TikTok is eager to get any and all advertisers to test out their ad product, so much so that they’re offering $300 credits for any brand to get started. This insinuates that there may not be as many dollars being pushed their way as they had hoped, indicating points made above are likely to hold true. 
  6. Functionality. The ad platform UI is fantastic considering it only moved out of beta earlier this year. As an Agency Partner, we have been impressed by both the ease of use, the flexibility of campaign types and executions as well as the customer service working on more elaborate executions for our clients. 

Ultimately, if you’re looking to drive positive brand engagement at scale with a younger demo,  TikTok is a platform worth considering. 

And of course you’re welcome to use our team to get campaigns concepted, audiences built, creative trafficked and media in-market to help assist your TikTok efforts! 

Written By John Lods

Golfer, Dave Matthews Band enthusiast, Arm Candy CEO, inadvertent wordsmith, and on good days, occasionally funny.

Written By John Lods

Golfer, Dave Matthews Band enthusiast, Arm Candy CEO, inadvertent wordsmith, and on good days, occasionally funny.