The incident of the U.S. requiring ByteDance to divest Tuke within 165 days has recently attracted worldwide attention and heated discussion.

Below is a detailed timeline of the development of this incident, to help better understand the causes and consequences:

Full Timeline of the Incident

March 5

Bipartisan members of the U.S. Congress proposed a bill,requiring ByteDance to divest its control over the short video app Tuke, otherwise the app would be banned from app stores.

This bipartisan bill was proposed by Mike Gallagher, Republican chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, Raja Krishnamoorthi, the committee's Democratic leader, and 17 other lawmakers,giving ByteDance 165 days to divest Tuke to avoid the app being banned.

In response, Tuke said: "No matter how the sponsors try to disguise it, this bill is a total Tuke ban.This legislation will trample on the First Amendment rights of 170 million Americans and deprive 5 million small businesses of a platform they rely on to grow and create jobs."

March 6

A message appeared within the Tuke app, calling on users to oppose the new legislation against Tuke. This message inspired a large number of users to call congressional offices to express their support for Tuke.

Image source: Shared by netizens

March 7

The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously passed the divestment bill with a vote of 50:0. As the news spread, the incident further fermented in the U.S. On the 7th,the phones at congressional offices were overwhelmed by Tuke users.

March 8

#Tuke users overwhelmed U.S. congressional office phones# became a trending topic on Weibo, with Chinese netizens also joining the discussion. The topic garnered over 70 million discussions. From the results of the discussion, it is not difficult to see that everyone unanimously believes this move by the U.S. is extremely "arrogant" and consistent with its usual style.

March 10

Some media outlets reposted foreign reports stating, "Former Blizzard CEO contacted Zhang Yiming to consider a $100 billion acquisition of Tuke, and Altman may participate in the deal." ByteDance quickly responded, refuting this as false: After verification, company founder Zhang Yiming has not communicated with anyone about related matters.

Interestingly, U.S. President Biden had just joined Tuke not long ago and gained a certain number of followers through his account. However, regarding this incident, he stated that if the legislative proposal concerning Tuke is passed, he will sign it into law. Former U.S. President Trump, on the other hand, opposes it, believing that the ban on Tuke will only help the real enemies of the American people.

As for the political game involved, we won't elaborate too much here, but Tuke knows that if the U.S. bans Tuke, the biggest loser will definitely be the U.S. itself!

U.S. Users Who Rely on Tuke

The U.S. has the second largest monthly active user base on Tuke. A large number of Americans, especially young people, are loyal Tuke users. Surveys show that among U.S. users aged 18-34, 56% clearly state they use Tuke. About half of adult American Tuke users (52%) have posted videos on the platform.

Specifically, in January 2024, Tuke's monthly active users in the U.S. reached 129 million, second only to Indonesia's 145 million. But it's worth noting that the total U.S. population is just over 300 million, meaning nearly half of Americans are Tuke users.

Image source: Pew Research Center

Large Number of U.S. Local Businesses Making Money on Tuke

Among these users are many local American businesses, who, together with other merchants on Tuke, form a diverse and vibrant business ecosystem.

It is understood that during the testing phase before Tuke Shop officially opened, about 200,000 merchants had already settled on Tuke's U.S. site. So far, although the exact data is still pending statistics, the actual number can only be higher than what is currently known.

Therefore, if the U.S. completely bans Tuke, it will inevitably trigger strong protests from the American public, just like Indonesia's previous ban on Tuke, and will also cause a large number of U.S. Tuke local businesses to completely lose a very important marketing platform, with losses that are hard to estimate.

Conclusion

As a global phenomenon-level social media platform, Tuke, with its unique gameplay, strong influence, and huge user base (as of January 2024, 1.186 billion global monthly active users), has become a new choice for global business marketing.

On the one hand, Tuke breaks geographical boundaries, allowing businesses to easily reach global users and achieve international brand communication. On the other hand, Tuke's user base is young and active, full of curiosity and enthusiasm for new things, providing businesses with a constant source of creative inspiration. With this dual advantage, Tuke has become a must-compete platform for overseas marketing.

However, due to policy requirements in some countries, Tuke's e-commerce functions cannot be launched, which is undoubtedly a pity. The U.S. ban incident is a good example. If Tuke is really banned in the U.S., it would be a great pity for the U.S. to lose such a powerful e-commerce development channel, and even more regrettable for American businesses who have to close their Tuke shops.

However, as long as everything is not yet settled, this incident may still see a turnaround! Let's look forward to further developments together!