How TikTok (still) works

Channels with Peter Kafka

Vox Media Podcast Network

Technology, Tv & Film, Business News, News

4.4 • 585 Ratings

🗓️ 22 January 2025

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

TikTok banned itself for less than a day. Now it’s back in the U.S. - despite a law that says it shouldn’t be operating. We’re not going to weigh in on all of the… weirdness around the last few days on this episode, in part because we don’t know how it’s going to play out. But in the meantime I wanted to talk to someone who knows how TikTok actually works — from a content creator’s perspective, at least. Adam Faze runs Gymnasium, a small production studio that specializes in TikTok videos, and so far it’s gone well: In 18 months, he’s launched two successful shows, signed up Amazon to sponsor one of them, and is ramping up to make more. He walked me through the way companies like his actually make money on TikTok, how the platform differs from TikTok clones like Instagram Reels, and how he thinks this could grow in the future. Assuming TikTok sticks around the U.S., that is. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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1:39.3	From the Vox Media Podcast Network, it's channels with Peter Kafka.
1:43.8	That is me. I am also the chief
1:45.5	correspondent at Business Insider. And today we are talking about TikTok, which as I am recording
1:51.6	this, is still operating in the U.S., despite the fact that there's a new law that went in
1:56.4	a effect a few days ago that said TikTok can't operate in the U.S. unless it's owned by a non-Chinese buyer.
2:02.0	And what happens next is going to be fascinating because we really don't know what's going to happen next.
2:06.3	For instance, Donald Trump has signed an executive order telling tech companies to ignore the new law while he figures out a sale.
2:12.7	But that order by itself doesn't seem to persuade companies like Apple and Google that they should put TikTok back in their app stores. Again, I want to point out that this is a law that Donald
2:22.4	Trump is trying to either overturn or extend or modify. The law passed overwhelmingly by Congress
	...

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