K-beauty brands breathe sigh of relief after TikTok's return to US

The TikTok logo is displayed on a phone Friday in New York City. The Supreme Court banned the app, but Trump delayed enforcement by 75 days with an executive order. AFP-Yonhap

TikTok’s temporary suspension and partial restoration in the U.S. have provided significant relief for Korean beauty brands, which rely heavily on the platform for their marketing activities.

The potential banning of TikTok, a key tool for promoting products in the U.S. market, had raised concerns about losing a crucial advertising platform.

TikTok expressed its gratitude on Sunday to U.S. President Donald Trump for ensuring that no penalties would be imposed on its service providers. This statement followed Trump’s executive order, signed on Monday, which delayed the enforcement of a ban on TikTok for 75 days. The ban had previously threatened to shut down TikTok if its parent company, ByteDance, did not sell its U.S. operations.

The ban, initiated in April 2024 by the U.S. Congress, aimed to address national security concerns over ByteDance potentially leaking American user data to China. TikTok had ceased operations on Saturday but resumed services the next day after Trump’s intervention.

With TikTok back in action, K-beauty independent brands such as Beauty of Joseon, Manyo Factory, Skin1004, Anua and TIRTIR — key players in the U.S. market — breathed a sigh of relief.

TikTok has become a crucial platform for reaching its core demographic: females aged 10 to 30. Unlike YouTube, which predominantly features horizontal content, TikTok's vertical short-form videos resonate with younger audiences accustomed to this format, positioning it as a highly effective tool for fostering viral success and driving sales on platforms such as Amazon.

An official from an independent K-beauty brand said, "We heavily rely on TikTok for influencer collaborations and marketing. The recent suspension caused significant anxiety, but we’re relieved by this decision."

However, uncertainty persists as Trump has proposed that ByteDance form a U.S. joint venture and transfer more than 50 percent of its ownership to American entities.

Another brand spokesperson said, "TikTok accounts for 80 percent of our online marketing. If it’s banned, users will likely migrate to other platforms, and we are preparing to quickly adapt to any shifts in trends."

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.