STATE COLLEGE, PA. (WTAJ) — TikTok isn’t just for kids.
There’s a large community of small businesses using it to boost business, especially during the pandemic.
But President Trump’s recent Executive Order to ban the app has one local business owner worried she may have to find new ways to sell her products:
TikTok changed the way Pamela Luu does business.
She owns State College-based Still Not A Hippie making all-natural handmade products.
Luu started creating process videos on TikTok, and it took off.
“That first TikTok, when that blew up the orders started coming in,” says Luu. “I posted it at 3:30 in the morning, woke up to 15,000 views.”
She started getting orders from all over the country, keeping her business afloat.
“Especially with the pandemic, I haven’t been able to do markets, they all got canceled or postponed pretty much for the rest of the year,” says Luu.
But President Trump’s Executive Order, signed Thursday, will ban TikTok in the U.S. in 45 days if the app is not sold by its Chinese-owned parent companies.
That’s tough news for Luu, and other business owners using the platform.
“We’re going to have to pivot again, we’ve had to pivot with the pandemic,” says Luu. “A lot of the small business owners though, we’re bootstrap people we’ll do what we have to do.”
But she’ll keep tik-toking for as long as she can.
“It has definitely, definitely helped me through this pandemic.” says Luu.
For now, she’ll hold on to to hope that her new found source of business isn’t shutdown in the U.S.
“I will probably, I might cry a little bit if it happens but I will pick myself up and go in another direction,” says Luu.