TikTok Shop Sees $100M Black Friday Sales and Donald Trump Could be the Key To Saving U.S. TikTok.

1/5 Black Friday Sales on TikTok Hit Over $100M

TikTok’s many efforts to coerce consumers to purchase in-stream have finally paid off, with TikTok Shop seeing a 3x sales increase on Black Friday this year. The popular platform underwent a “Shopping Season” push, which featured shopping live streams, celebrity appearances and more. The effort did not go unnoticed, with TikTok shop experiencing a 165% growth in shoppers year-over-year over Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Small and medium businesses were the clear winners of the weekend, with a third of all purchases going to these brands. Nicki Minaj also made headlines with her Pink Friday Nails livestream becoming the highest-viewed TikTok Shop Live in the app’s existence, with more than 172 million viewers attending.?

2/5 TikTok Year in Review is Finally Here?

TikTok has released its Year in Review summary for 2024, highlighting the top creators, trends, and clips. The review took on new meaning this year, with TikTok using the opportunity to emphasise its positive impact on the U.S. economy, taking care to mention the 170 million Americans who are part of its community. The review focused on a range of key communities such as #musictok and #booktok, highlighting the millions of viewers in each category. #Booktok alone received 1.2 million views in the first 10 months of 2024, an astounding statistic. Sports had a particularly good year on the app, with #sportsontiktok receiving more than 350% more posts this year than last, a byproduct of the larger social trend of brands entering the sports arena for marketing.?

3/5 Meta Unveils New Llama AI Model?

CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced Meta’s final 2024 AI update; a new 70 billion parameter Llama 3.3 model. According to Zuckerberg, the new model will perform almost as well as its former 405 billion parameter model, but with far more efficacy. Llama 3.3 will allow more developers to use the model, building on Meta’s open-source AI protocols. Zuckerberg also announced that the system is the most used AI model in the world, with more than 650 million downloads and counting. Meta is still sticking to its plan to open source its AI tools to allow for innovation, but with Llama becoming the key to so many AI projects, Meta is building up some impressive market power.?

4/5 U.S. Courts Reject TikTok’s Last Ditch Attempt at Saviour?

TikTok’s bid to negate the U.S. government’s sell-off bill has been rejected by an appeals court, meaning the platform is even closer to being removed from the country. In fact, Americans could see TikTok gone from their app stores as soon as January 19th, 2025. It is important to note, however, that there are still a few tricks left in TikTok’s arsenal to fight off the ban. One of which, may be President-elect Donald Trump, who has vowed to save the app. Ultimately, TikTok’s main hurdle is American-Chinese relations. After all, the app’s attempt to declare the bill unlawful was rejected by the appeals court due to China being a “foreign adversary” that could potentially harm the U.S. public through the app, and it is unlikely that this belief will change; a belief held by American politicians, more than the American people.?

5/5 LinkedIn Reveals Key To Platform Fame?

Ahead of the New Year, LinkedIn has unveiled some key ways users can up their presence on the platform. The list has the usual suggestions, such as posting twice a week to see up to five times more views and completing your profile. Yet, it also has a few new additions worth making note of. The platform has released five key areas that users can polish up to ensure their profile is performing as best as it can. These areas include using a strong opening hook, writing in small paragraphs, using relevant hashtags, tagging companies and people, and ending on a call to action.

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