Advertising tech company The Trade Desk isn’t interested in snapping up companies—despite its recent rare acquisition of data firm Sincera.

The Trade Desk is the largest independent adtech firm, competing primarily against Google and Amazon for programmatic ad dollars. But the giant is notably not a buyer of companies. Besides Sincera, The Trade Desk’s only other acquisition to date was its 2017 acquisition of Adbrain.

While speaking at the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Annual Leadership Meeting, Green quickly shut down speculation that its recent acquisition could signal a shift in The Trade Desk’s mergers and acquisitions strategy.

“Sincera isn’t a big team,” Green said, emphasizing The Trade Desk’s focus on developing its own tech rather than integrating new businesses. Financial terms of the Sincera acquisition were not disclosed at the time of the annoucement.

While Green acknowledged that acquisitions sometimes make sense, he said they’re often distractions. Instead, Green is betting on growth of The Trade Desk’s core business, particularly as the company strengthens its role as a trusted partner for publishers.

Even so, Green acknowledged that the adoption of programmatic advertising has not grown as quickly as he had hoped—presenting a challenge as the company continues pushing for a more open and competitive digital ad ecosystem.

Green also broken down four adtech trends to watch out for in 2025.

Adtech companies and publishers could win if Google loses

Green has long been a critic of Google, which is both a competitor and partner to The Trade Desk.

Google is currently waiting for a ruling in the federal case accusing that its programmatic ad business is a monopoly.

Green believes Google will first negotiate with the government before it is forced to breakup its ad exchange business. If that split comes to pass, Green sees it benefiting the open internet, supply-side platforms, and publishers who’ve long been under Google’s thumb.

“Google’s success has not been good for SSPs and publishers,” he said, adding that it makes strategic sense for Google to focus more on YouTube rather than the open internet—something that its demand-side platform, DV360, already prioritizes. “It’s where all their privacy and antitrust risks come from, but it’s not where all the money comes from.”

Green framed a potential spinoff as a “chess move” for Google’s board and CEO Sundar Pichai—not just a regulatory aftershock. A breakup could spark much-needed competition and finally allow SSPs to deliver real yield management for publishers, Green said.

Spotify will embrace programmatic advertising

Green sees Spotify’s full embrace of the open internet as a pivotal moment for audio advertising.

Thanks to generative AI’s ability to streamline ad creation, creating audio ads will accelerate.

“Audio might be the most on-sale part of the open internet,” he said. He expects to see a huge uptick in programmatic audio as Spotify opens up more inventory.

Streaming will go more programmatic

Green expects streaming TV to continue growing as content owners push for more profitability and ad loads increase. He sees a greater role for programmatic and biddable inventory in streaming, especially for high-value categories like sports, where auction-based pricing could drive higher ad prices.

“There’s still lots of room for us to grow to make things biddable,” he said. “That will have a huge impact on some of the most expensive content in CTV, which is sports, where biddable is really suited to improve the entire sports experience.”

The Trade Desk is also building a smart TV operating system called Ventura.

Streaming makes up half of The Trade Desk’s business, but Green also sees opportunities in retail media and display advertising—even as display faces challenges.

“Honestly, it’s not that important to me,” Green said when asked if the company’s mix would remain 50-50. “We want to go where there are growth opportunities and where there’s efficacy.”

Identity remains a priority

Despite Google’s inconsistent approach to cookies and identifiers, Green said that The Trade Desk remains committed to its privacy product called Unified ID 2.0. He blasted Google for inserting itself between consumers and publishers in the name of privacy, while cementing a new form of market dominance.

“By creating an ID that sits outside of that—one that appends to the most benign piece of what we’ve formally called PII, an email address—you make it possible for consumers to take their preferences with them,” he said.

Following the 75-day extension for a possible TikTok ban in the U.S., Instagram is aggressively courting top creators.

Over the past couple of weeks, Instagram has rolled out a flurry of updates aimed at creators. Instagram’s short-form Reel videos now last up to three minutes, a revamped profile layout looks similar to TikTok’s 4:5 ratio, and Instagram is offering cash bonuses to incentivize creators to make Reels. Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri has also actively been sharing insights and updates for creators through his account on how to make effective videos native to Instagram and how often to post to Instagram.

Despite Instagram’s efforts to become a new hub for creators coming from TikTok, creators told ADWEEK that they still face challenges that the platform must address before they’re willing to go all-in on Instagram. It’s also not clear how long Instagram’s courtship with creators will last.

“It is tough because it does feel like a back-and-forth game, and it can get discouraging,” said fashion creator Tayla Santos.

A spokesperson for Instagram said that the company is providing creators with one-to-one help from members of its partnership team. Instagram will also use Mosseri’s account and a dedicated creators account to provide education resources to creators about its platform.

Meta is also offering a free year’s trial of Meta Verified, a subscription product that helps with account support and protection.

Inconsistent product rollout

Instagram often tests new features with small user groups before broadly rolling out products. For example, Instagram recently introduced a tall grid format.

However, creators did not get enough time to prepare for the update, Mosseri acknowledged in a post. Plus, the feature is not available to all creators.

Creators told ADWEEK that the tall grid update isn’t the only feature rollout that Instagram has botched. Some creators said that it’s frustrating that updates don’t roll out out to everyone at once.

“It puts people at an unfair advantage or disadvantage when the app isn’t the same for everybody,” said Santos.

Inaccessible features can demotivate creators from using Instagram because there are not equal tools for everyone.

In one example, Santos said that her account didn’t have the option to add 20 pictures to a carousel post—a feature Instagram rolled out in August—until January.

“It was the day the Tiktok ban happened—that’s when I got the ability to post 20 pictures on my carousel,” Santos said. Santos said she was frustrated about the slow rollout to her page because she has a large audience and consistently posts content on the platform.

Unpredictable algorithm

TikTok and Instagram’s algorithms are also starkly different.

Creators told ADWEEK that they tend to prefer the variety that TikTok’s algorithm offers compared to Instagram’s version. For instance, on TikTok’s “For You” page, users encounter a diverse range of videos from dancing to cooking. In contrast, Instagram’s algorithm does not provide the same level of variety and struggles to balance different interests, said lifestyle creator Sean O’Donnell.

“The algorithm is entrenched in Instagram,” O’Donnell said. “It makes it hard to expand—you have to go actively looking for other things, type them in the search bar, and make them pop up.”

Unlike Instagram, O’Donnell said the TikTok algorithm evenly shows content that represents his interests.

“If I pull up a video on Reels of a car, and I swipe to another one, it’ll be another car video,” he said. “On TikTok, it feels like every one of the interests that I have is at least evenly represented.”

Better payouts for creators

On Jan. 22, Meta announced a bonus program for creators, allowing them to apply for up to $5,000 in exchange for posting to Instagram and Facebook. The program specifically targets creators who are new to the platforms. According to the program’s description, creators can earn money from Reels, videos, photos, and text posts through Facebook’s invite-only Content Monetization program.

Despite the allure of cash, creators that ADWEEK spoke to were frustrated with the lack of clarity around the program. They said that it’s not clear on the exact amount of money that Meta is offering and what steps a creator must take to qualify for the bonus.

Renee said that Instagram’s payout program is not as clear as YouTube’s version, which provides specific dollar amounts based on the success of content.

“It needs to be more like YouTube, where I know if I’m getting X amount of views, I’m getting X amount of dollars,” said Renee. “If you are trying to push to be the No. 1 app, you need to make it worth it.”

Benjamin De Almeida, a comedy creator, believes that Instagram has the opportunity to become the new primary monetization platform for creators given TikTok’s uncertain future. But first, Instagram needs to address creators’ frustrations.

“I never really used Instagram other than for pictures, but since TikTok has been threatened to be banned, Instagram Reels does feel like a bit more of a viable place than TikTok,” he said.

Meta has added a new topic to the list of its recent right-leaning actions, as several providers of abortion pills experienced issues that have been intensifying over the past two weeks, according to The New York Times.

Posts from two of those companies were blocked, blurred, or removed on Facebook and Instagram, while several abortion pill providers said their accounts were suspended and they were excluded from appearing in recommendations and search, the Times reported.

Some of those companies told the Times that over the past two days, content from their accounts on Instagram was no longer visible, and in some cases, their accounts were gone altogether.

Specifically, Aid Access told the Times it has been blocked from accessing its Facebook account since November, its Instagram account was suspended and restored this past week, and some of its posts were removed from Facebook and blurred on Instagram.

Just the Pill and Women Help Women told the newspaper their accounts were suspended and restored in recent days, saying Meta told them the accounts did not follow its standards on guns, drugs, and other restricted goods.

And Hey Jane head of marketing Rebecca Davis told the Times the company’s account had been invisible when searching on Instagram.

The Times reported that some accounts and posts were restored Thursday after it contacted Meta. A spokesperson for the company told the newspaper that the actions were tied to rules that prohibit the sale of pharmaceutical drugs on its platforms without proper certification, and that “over-enforcement” may have been an issue in some cases.

Meta took similar steps regarding abortion pills when Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court in June 2022.

The abortion pill controversy joins a growing list of recent activities by Meta and CEO Mark Zuckerberg that many perceive as cozying up to the administration of President Donald Trump, including:

The Times noted that telehealth providers are allowed to prescribe medication online and deliver prescription drugs that cause an abortion, including mifepristone and misoprostol, per Food and Drug Administration regulations. But 12 states have banned abortions, while several others placed gestational limits or restrictions on mail-order pills.

Influencer marketing platform ShopMy has raised $77.5 million in a Series B funding round.

ShopMy connects creators with brands to facilitate affiliate marketing partnerships. Creators use ShopMy’s links to share products with their followers, and earn commission when they purchase trough those links.

Its technology automates the process of sending free products to creators in exchange for content. Advertisers can also track sales from creator campaigns through ShopMy, bringing key visibility into a channel where measurement is still a challenge.

“By combining the authenticity of creator content with the precision of performance marketing,
we’re empowering brands to transform creator partnerships into a scalable performance
engine,” said Harry Rein, ShopMy’s co-founder and CEO, in a statement.

More than 100,000 creators earning commissionable revenue through the platform, and they see an average return on investment of 5x, according to ShopMy. Creators Arielle Charnas, Nam Vo, and Justin Anderson are on ShopMy’s platform.

Meanwhile, 550 brands, including Lululemon, Rhode, and Nordstrom, use ShopMy’s technology. The platform said since its launch in 2020, it has generated more than $352 million in total brand sales, achieving an average 5x return on investment.

ShopMy also offers automation tools that make the creator marketing process more seamless. Lookbooks is an automated gifting feature that reduces time spent on influencer gifting and minimizes product waste, while a feature called Opportunities automates content creation.

According to ShopMy, more than 190,000 gifts have been sent using Lookbooks since 2023, while in the last six months, brands have created 16,000 pieces of creator content resulting in 125 million views with Opportunities.

ShopMy will use the investment to grow its team and expand into new verticals like health and wellness, hospitality, and family, while doubling down on fashion and beauty.

The funding was led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Bain Capital Ventures. Menlo Ventures and previous investors Inspired Capital and AlleyCorp also participated in the round. Individual investors including Eric Chan, chief business and strategy officer at Gap; and creators Campbell and Jett Puckett and Camila Coehlo, also participated.

“By transforming trusted recommendations into measurable performance marketing,
[ShopMy is] pioneering an entirely new approach to commerce,” said Jeremy Levine, partner at Bessemer, in a statement.

The new administration has brought with it new social media conspiracy theories.

Facebook and Instagram users in the U.S. claimed that they were being forced to follow President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance‘s accounts, while TikTok users hinted at an unwelcome change in the application’s algorithm.

Among the Facebook and Instagram users complaining about the forced follows included singer Gracie Abrams, who said in an Instagram Story that she had to unfollow the @potus and @vp accounts three separate times, CNN reported. Fellow singer Demi Lovato also noted in her Instagram Story, “I have unfollowed this guy twice today.”

According to The Hill, many users who claimed that they were forced to follow the accounts had not previously been following former President Joe Biden or former Vice President Kamala Harris, so it was not a case of the accounts changing hands.

Katie Harbath, who was Facebook’s public policy director for global elections from 2011 through 2021, told CBS News that her team followed the same protocols through administration transitions in 2017 and 2021, giving each incoming president a clean slate on the platform.

“That would give them the opportunity to set up the page how they want, make sure it’s got the cover photo, all that jazz,” she added. “Then it was decided that under the assumption that people are following the institution—regardless of who’s in it—that the followers would be mirrored over, copied over to the new page.”

Meta communications director Andy Stone denied the allegations in a post on X, writing, “People were not made to automatically follow any of the official Facebook or Instagram accounts for the president, vice president, or first lady. Those accounts are managed by the White House, so with a new administration, the content on those pages changes. This is the same procedure we followed during the last presidential transition. It may take some time for follow and unfollow requests to go through as these accounts change hands.”

Some Instagram users also claimed that the #Democrat hashtag was blocked on Instagram this week, CNN reported. Stone replied on X, “There’s an issue affecting people’s ability to search for a number of different hashtags on Instagram—not just those on the left. We’re working quickly to resolve this.”

Recent actions by Meta and CEO Mark Zuckerberg likely contributed to the speculation, including meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, donating $1 million Trump’s inauguration fund, promoting Republican Party ally Joel Kaplan to chief global affairs officer, adding UFC CEO and Trump ally Dana White to Meta’s board of directors, eliminating third-party fact-checking, and scaling back diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.

As for TikTok, Semafor reported that following the app’s approximately 14-hour shutdown this past weekend, many creators began to post videos alleging that the algorithm felt different, with some claiming that their comments, feeds, and search functions were being censored.

Semafor reported that many of those videos had tallied millions of likes. A spokesperson for TikTok told Semafor, “Our policies and algorithms did not change over the weekend.”

Much like Zuckerberg, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew has been perceived as seeking to curry favor with the Trump administration. Last week, he posted a video praising the then-president-elect after the Supreme Court upheld a law that would force a ban of the app in the U.S. He also met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla., last month, and attended Monday’s inauguration.

TikTok’s dramatic 14-hour shutdown in the U.S. has left some advertisers grappling with a noticeable dip in user engagement, impacting campaign performance.

In a memo sent to advertisers this week and reviewed by ADWEEK, TikTok stated that the app is available to “the majority of U.S. users” but warned of “temporary instability” that could affect the app’s features and user access.

“We’ve seen a decrease in all of our metrics and communicated to our clients that their profile health has come down,” said Harriet Riley, social strategy director, Pereira O’Dell, though she wouldn’t share specifics. “There’s a lull in activity because there is a whole user base that has not returned immediately,” she added.

Pereira O’Dell tracks metrics such as likes on TikTok videos to establish daily engagement baselines, primarily influenced by the platform’s discovery and search features.

TikTok’s disruption, though brief, created chaos for both advertisers and users. At press time, TikTok remains unavailable for download from the Apple and Google app stores.

“There is going to be a delta in data specifically to the performance of live and active paid campaigns,” said Riley. She noted that when platforms go down, ad delivery pauses, resulting in reduced reach and engagement for campaigns in progress.

According to the memo, because the campaign was paused for fewer than seven days, TikTok will not re-enter the platform’s “learning phase” when resumed. Typically, platforms such as TikTok and Meta notify advertisers that campaigns will enter a learning phase when launched or after significant changes, during which the platform recalibrates and optimizes ad delivery.

At performance agency Tinuiti, 70% of clients who paused ads last week—either by choice or due to the app outage—have resumed campaigns this week. CPMs have dropped 29% compared to the previous week, according to the agency.

“This indicates that there could potentially be overall performance woes in either how the algorithm is finding users or those users’ likeliness to convert,” said Jack Johnston, senior social innovation director, Tinuiti.

Additional figures from ecommerce and analytics platform MikMak, which works with 2,000 brands and has a view into $3 billion of digital U.S. ad spend, shows paid media on TikTok plummeted to zero during the platform’s brief shutdown. While ad spend is gradually returning to the app, some brands are shifting their advertising dollars to Google and Pinterest.

From MikMak’s vantage point, click-through rates spiked when TikTok came back online, as users showed an eagerness to shop amid a lack of brands providing avenues to capture paid traffic. MikMak CEO Rachel Tipograph explained the sharp rise in purchase intent stemmed from “more demand than supply.”

Some advertisers will look for refunds following lagging performance

Exverus Media, anticipating service disruptions, paused all client campaigns on Saturday evening. Although campaigns will resume automatically, Ryan Schuster, director of search and social at Exverus, cautioned that audience sizes may be affected.

“It’s a tumultuous time to be on TikTok, and for those getting back on it,” Schuster said.

While TikTok has confirmed it will honor refunds for reserved inventory in the event of a shutdown, such commitments are not formalized in contracts. Schuster added, “That would be our course of action if we detect any issues with ad deliverability or viewability.”

Some industry executives, however, are skeptical about TikTok’s willingness to offer compensation for disruptions.

“It’s unlikely that TikTok would offer compensation for advertisers who stay on the platform despite the Supreme Court’s ruling. Their response might echo the sentiment: ‘If you’re willing to be there, then the experience and performance are what they are,’” said Tamara Alesi, ceo, Mediaplus North America.

TikTok did not respond to media request.

The creator marketing ecosystem dodged a potentially devastating bullet with President Donald Trump’s recent executive order postponing the ban on TikTok in the U.S. Now, a creator luminary is stepping in to help save the platform.

Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, has now joined a group in a bid to buy TikTok from its China-based parent company, ByteDance. Jesse Tinsley, a tech entrepreneur and the founder of Employer.com, leads the effort, Bloomberg reported.

MrBeast is the most-followed and highest-earning creator in the world, tallying more than 347 million followers on YouTube and expanding into businesses including snack brand Feastables and MrBeast Burger.

A spokesperson for the Tinsley-led group told Bloomberg an all-cash bid was submitted with “institutional investors and high net worth individuals,” and the group is being represented by law firm Paul Hastings.

Bloomberg noted that Brad Bondi is part of the Paul Hastings team working on the bid, and his sister, Pam Bondi, is Trump’s nominee to run the Department of Justice.

Tinsley wrote in a post on X Monday, “I’m in Washington, D.C., at the inauguration to meet with President Trump and his team to discuss our offer to buy TikTok … Now, we’re awaiting a response from ByteDance’s board. Our goal is to ensure that TikTok stays accessible, thriving, and aligned with the values that make America great. We also welcome U.S. government investment.”

Trump signed an executive order Monday, hours after his inauguration, instructing the attorney general’s office to delay the law that banned TikTok in the U.S. for 75 days, effective Sunday.

The law, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, requires TikTok’s China-based parent, ByteDance, to sell the application to a U.S. company.

The Supreme Court upheld the law last Friday, and TikTok went dark in the U.S. for about 14 hours Saturday night running into Sunday. The app was restored after Trump promised that he would issue the executive order.

Other reported potential acquirers of TikTok have included Amazon, former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, X owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary, and Oracle, but there have been no indications that ByteDance is pursuing any of those options.

The success of advertising rests on clear, concise, and culturally considerate communication. Yet only 22 days into 2025, legal mandates and corporate maneuvers would suggest that facts are not important to consider when crafting what we say, how we say it, or how we show it. 

Everyone was left a little shaken following Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement that Meta will be eliminating its fact-checking policies across Facebook, Instagram, and Threads—his grounds being free rein for free speech, but whether the speech is accurate in depiction or description is no longer a disqualifier. If opinion can be taken as fact or misconstrued, whether deliberate or not, it undermines the reliability of the data we depend on to inform marketing strategies.

This is compounded by recent developments in state privacy laws affecting the data we aggregate: So far, 19 states have deviated from the Washington Privacy Act, which regulates the management and oversight of personal data. The reason is that ethnicity, race, and related attributes are now being treated as sensitive personal information that must be redacted.

While these measures are honorable in preventing information from being used to discriminate, there is a flip side: Data that is mapped against how a person self-identifies helps us understand diverse perspectives. It’s an integral component for quality control. Without this context, we’re hindered from recognizing nuanced insights necessary for creating equitable and effective campaigns.

The fundamental problem with these two developments—Meta’s policy shift and changes to data privacy laws—is the ripple effect in marketing. They’re effectively license to compromise ethical standards when designing narratives that represent diverse cultures.

According to a study by Nuance Matters, 44% of people believe brands focus too much on surface-level representation, neglecting deeper cultural understanding. This is a clear indication that we must take extra care to avoid misshaping how people view the belief systems, behaviors, or values of others from what we create.

The stakes are high. African American, Asian American, and Native American households collectively represent 17.4% of U.S. purchasing power, equating to nearly $1 of every $5.75 spent. Hispanic buying power is projected to reach $2.8 trillion by next year. Failing to engage these communities meaningfully could mean losing billions in potential revenue. We tread a fine line of either affirming or dispelling biases, and if consumers feel sidelined, that’s dollars walking right out the door.

Building trust through data and human intelligence

Trustworthiness in storytelling is the game changer. Even Yann LeCun, Meta’s chief AI scientist, admitted that some AI models will never compensate for the workings of the human mind; qualitative will need equal billing with quantitative, if not more.

Real-life conversations are critical in fact-checking lived experience against what’s ticked in a study or survey. This also extends to focus group testing to ensure diverse perspectives are heard. These measures help identify inconsistencies while adding more depth to individual thought processes. Communal curiosity of the human mind is key.

In addition, agencies must take the lead in developing proprietary AI systems tailored to cultural analysis. A Salesforce study revealed that 40% of marketers lack access to real-time data on specific communities, often relying on outdated insights or intuition.

As AI developments continue to accelerate, we should be at the forefront of developing models that better reflect cultural contexts. No one wants the doctrine of disparate impact knocking at their door, so we need to look beyond AI’s utilization to mitigate biases inherent in current algorithms. This proactive approach positions agencies as stewards of ethical, inclusive marketing.

Steps toward unity in marketing

Creating change requires simple, actionable steps to get ahead of the game. 

First, have honest consultations with brands to prioritize cultural nuance in audience insights; candid conversations are needed to understand how a brand views its current audience—and if they see their consumer in a fundamentally different way than the consumer sees themselves.

Carrying overcomplicated assumptions of the attributes of any given target, such as their political stance or personal ideology, will affect how a brand segments its audience. Reset your approach when building identity profiles, starting with distinctive psychographic and demographic classifications. It will unlock greater engagement.

Appraise data capture protocols, both in-house and client side, to assess to mitigate bias and ensure inclusivity. Get up to date with a brand’s privacy regulations: If important data is being redacted, agencies are unable to build a fully informed profile of different audiences and cultures.

Why does it matter? 81% of brands say they have a deep understanding of their consumers, but less than half (46%) of customers agree. Data capture appraisals put agencies in a position to prevent the creation of a gap in usable customer data for marketing purposes.

Develop mutually agreed-upon criteria for different forms of marketing output, doubling down to reflect all aspects of identity. This helps agencies steer clients toward longevity for their businesses. Continued growth with new cohorts and nurtured intergenerational loyalty is the way to future-proof brand love.

Now is the time for bold leadership and brand bravery. By affirming the dignity and influence of communities, advertising can evolve into a unifying force that bridges cultural divides. We are in a prime position to shape a future where marketing reflects the world and inspires trust.

Just hours after taking office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday night instructing the attorney general’s office to delay enforcing the law that banned TikTok in the U.S. effective Sunday for 75 days, The New York Times reported. 

While signing the order, Trump told reporters, “The U.S. should be entitled to get half of TikTok,” according to the Times. 

The law, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, requires TikTok’s China-based parent, ByteDance, to sell the application to a U.S. company. 

According to the order, the Trump administration will “pursue a resolution that protects national security while saving a platform used by 170 million Americans,” the Times reported. 

It has been a hectic few days for Trump, as he prepared for his inauguration as the 47th president of the U.S. and the start of his second term in the White House, but things were far more chaotic for TikTok. 

Last Friday, the Supreme Court upheld the law banning TikTok in the U.S. as of Jan. 19, writing in its decision, “Congress has determined that divestiture is necessary to address its well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary. For the foregoing reasons, we conclude that the challenged provisions do not violate petitioners’ First Amendment rights.” 

Later that day, TikTok CEO, Shou Zi Chew posted his response in video form, going out of his way to praise Trump. 

“We are grateful and pleased to have the support of a president who truly understands our platform—one that has used TikTok to express his own thoughts and perspectives, connecting with the world and generating more than 60 billion views of his content in the process,” Chew said in his video. 

TikTok went dark in the U.S. a few hours early, at approximately 10:30 p.m. ET Saturday, with people attempting to access the application seeing a message saying that TikTok isn’t available for now and adding: “We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!” 

Trump posted to his Truth Social platform Sunday at 10 a.m. ET, “I’m asking companies not to let TikTok stay dark!,” and adding that he would issue an executive order Monday. 

“I would like the U.S. to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture,” he wrote. “By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands, and allow it to stay up. Without U.S. approval, there is no Tik Tok.  With our approval, it is worth hundreds of billions of dollars—maybe trillions.” 

Restoration of access to TikTok in the U.S. began around noon ET Sunday, and at 12:27 p.m., the company made a point of thanking President Trump on X.

Later that day, the platform began alerting advertisers that ad campaigns targeting audiences in the U.S. would resume delivering ads Sunday. 

TikTok cautioned that there would be “certain limitations” on live campaigns, and it also warned of the potential of “temporary service instability that may affect advertising in the U.S.” 

After going dark for a few hours over the weekend, TikTok has returned following a pledge from President-elect Donald Trump to delay the app’s U.S. ban on his first day back in office.

Whether the popular social platform can find a permanent way to stay online in America remains unclear. If it can’t, billions of advertising dollars are bound to migrate to alternative channels.

Data shows which companies’ TikTok ad budgets might eventually be up for grabs in 2025—and how much they’re worth.

Last year, the app’s 10 largest U.S. advertisers each dedicated at least $45 million to paid media, according to marketing intelligence platform MediaRadar. The list includes The Coca-Cola Company, which increased ad spend by 206% in 2024 compared to 2023, Target (up 173%), Walmart (168%), and Procter & Gamble (159%).

Together, these companies contributed a combined $690 million to advertising on TikTok. The sum represents around 14% of the platform’s total 2024 ad revenue, which MediaRadar puts at $4.8 billion—a 27% spike compared to 2023.

Despite the rise in ad dollars, MediaRadar estimates the raw number of companies advertising on TikTok declined from 29,800 in 2023 to 24,300 in 2024.

In terms of ad categories, none expanded across TikTok more last year than pharmaceuticals & supplements, which grew 78%. Restaurants & bars (61%), followed by financial & insurance (54%), also increased their paid media presence throughout the past 12-month period.

The lone major category that pulled back on advertising was apparel & accessories.

If TikTok fails to find a long-term solution, beating the competition to attract its lost ad revenue may prove lucrative.

Additional findings from MediaRadar show that among the companies that advertised on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or X last year, the vast majority of businesses limited their ad spend to just one of these four sites. Only about one in five companies ran paid media on two or more of the aforementioned social platforms.

Part of the reason why U.S. lawmakers consider TikTok a threat to national security, and therefore moved to ban it, is due to the app’s enormous popularity.

In December, 20% of U.S. adults reported using TikTok several times per day, according to figures from data intelligence firm Morning Consult. That’s up from just 4% who said the same in January 2020.

Meanwhile, around half the country logged into the app at least sometimes just before it shut down.