TIKTOK stars like Charli D’Amelio and Bella Poarch are set to lose millions of dollars as their livelihood goes down the drain with TikTok thanks to the new nationwide ban.
As of today, TikTok will no longer be updated or maintained after the Supreme Court voted unanimously on Friday to force the app’s China-based parent company to either sell the app or get rid of it.
The company, ByteDance, refused to sell – leaving 170 million TikTok users mourning the short-form video platform as it remains online for what little time the app has left.
While the ban means no more news or entertainment on the platform, other TikTok users are losing out on their income after making names for themselves as influencers on the beloved app.
Some of the top TikTok creators on the app who make millions each year for their content include Charli D’Amelio, Zach King, and Nara Smith, according to Forbes 2024 list.
Charli is one of the highest-earning stars as the second most-followed account on the app behind Senegalese-Italian influencer Khaby Lame.
The 20-year-old dancer currently pulls in $23.50 million per year.
Her sister, Dixie, earned $14.60 million in 2024 as she made her way off her family’s empire on TikTok and entered the fashion world.
Meanwhile, singer Bella Poarch is estimated to make $3.3 million each year as the fourth most popular account on the app, according to Forbes in 2023.
Another singer, Addison Rae, makes $3.4 million as she’ll likely continue her budding music career in TikTok’s absence.
Comedy actor Adam Waheed makes $15 million off his comedic skits on the app, while Jordan “The Stallion” Howlett earns $4.5 million from his 13 million followers.
Makeup influencer Mikayla Nogueira makes $7 million, while comedian Jake Shane pulled in $6 million last year.
Smith, a Mormon mom known for her videos about cooking and parenting, earned $6.5 million.
King, a video editor who is one of the most popular accounts on the platform with 82 million followers, takes home $5.1 million.
The nine TikTokers earned a combined total of $83.8 million in 2024 – a massive amount that they’ll likely lose in the wake of the ban.
Meanwhile, Mr. Beast, a TikTok star who has over 500 million followers across all social media, earned $85 million in 2024.
TikTok influencer earnings
American TikTok influencers will lose their TikTok earnings in the wake of the nationwide ban on the app.
Here are the annual earnings of some of the top TikTok stars:
- Charli D’Amelio – $23.50 million
- Adam Waheed – $15 million
- Dixie D’Amelio – $14.6 million
- Mikayla Nogueira – $7 million
- Nara Smith – $6.5 million
- Jake Shane – $6 million
- Jordan The Stallion – $4.5 million
- Addison Rae – $3.4 million
- Bella Poarch – $3.3 million
Source: Forbes
TikTok previously boasted about the app’s financial contribution to the country.
The platform reportedly added $24.2 billion to the US economy, according to the Washington Post just last year.
The app also is said to have created $14.7 billion in revenue for small business owners.
TikTok has faced backlash for shutting so abruptly, leaving people without revenue.
Influencers have filmed themselves crying in the aftermath of the shutdown, which first came about when Biden approved the ban-or-sell bill nine months ago.
RedNote, a Chinese-language social media app which is now available in English, seems to be the replacement for TikTok as millions of Americans are flooding to download the app.
Other TikTok alternatives include Lemon8, Clapper, and users are even suggesting just reverting to Instagram Reels.
ByteDance hasn’t publicly responded to offers from Mr. Beast and Elon Musk to buy the app.
How Donald Trump Could Still Save TikTok
On January 17, 2025, the Supreme Court upheld a congressional bill banning TikTok in the United States
The law would not immediately remove TikTok from phones nationwide or force it to go dark.
However, tech companies that continue hosting the app or updating it in their app store could face penalties.
US users with existing TikTok accounts can still access the app freely.
But, TikTok could eventually become obsolete as app stores and cloud providers will no longer be allowed to push out updates for the platform.
President-elect Donald Trump has said he will review the banning of TikTok and will make a decision of platform’s future.
The ban is set to go into effect on January 19, 2025, a day before Trump is sworn in as president.
There are several ways Trump could interfere and save TikTok momentarily.
- President Joe Biden has said he will not enforce the law against tech companies who host TikTok on their app store when it goes into effect on January 19, 2025.
- Instead, Biden said it will leave that decision up to the incoming Trump administration.
- Trump could instruct the Department of Justice to ignore the law and not enforce it, while they work out a deal to separate TikTok from ByteDance, its Chinese-owned parent company.
- The president-elect could also sign an executive order pausing the ban for 60 to 90 days.
- Trump’s team have repeatedly said the president-elect has “expressed desire to save TikTok.”
- “President Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to save TikTok, and there’s no better dealmaker than Donald Trump,” a Trump spokesperson said.
