The story of TikTok began in 2016, when Chinese company ByteDance launched an application that allowed users to create and share short videos.

TikTok has attracted a large number of users since its launch. It amassed over 3 billion downloads with over 1 billion global users, becoming one of the most popular social media applications besides Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and Twitter. In the U.S., TikTok amassed over 150 million users, making up nearly half the U.S. population.

This young social media application connects broad global communities to gather around to learn, be entertained, and even boost small and medium-sized enterprises' (SMEs) businesses.

TikTok is more than just a social media platform with skyrocketing audience numbers, it also brings in billions of profits to creators. Therefore, the ban would make a huge impact on those people.

As NBC News reports, citing data from research firm eMarketer, in 2020, that TikTok's advertising revenue amounted to $780 million; by 2023, that number is projected to be around $6.8 billion.

TikTok has become a popular marketing tool for many U.S. small and medium-sized enterprises due to its advantages of low cost and high traffic. 

Capterra's TikTok Marketing Survey found that 78 percent of small businesses that run ads on TikTok have already realized a positive ROI–the majority within just six months.

The survey also found that 52 percent of SMEs marketing themselves on TikTok plan to spend more money on TikTok marketing in 2023.

It's easy to find out the countless small business stories on TikTok that mentioned how the app has helped them launch or build their business. 

As Forbes foresees, "a U.S. ban on the world's most popular social media app would affect far more American businesses and people than just the 150 million using the platform here."