The Countdown Begins: TikTok Navigates Uncertain Future Amid U.S. Ban Bill

The U.S. chain must recognize the competition, but customers will upgrade their preferences from discount coffee over time, Howard Schultz says

Just six months ago, TikTok, the short-video app owned by Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd., was charging headlong into the U.S. e-commerce market. From September through December, nearly $1.2 billion of goods were sold on the platform used by 170 million Americans. This year, the app aims to generate as much as $20 billion in gross merchandise volume (GMV) in the world’s biggest consumer market.

That goal is now threatened by legislation passed March 13 by the U.S. House of Representatives and is pending in the Senate that would force the parent company to sell TikTok within 180 days or face a nationwide ban.