TikTok’s traffic bounces back despite being pulled off app stores, fears of shutdown
Summary
"DNS traffic for TikTok-related domains has continued to recover since service restoration, and is currently about 10% lower than pre-shutdown level," David Belson, head of data insight at Cloudflare, told CNBC in a statement. The data from Cloudflare shows that, for the most part, TikTok has managed to maintain the bulk of its users and creators in the U.S. despite going offline for about 14 hours and remaining off of the Apple or Google app stores. As for its alternatives, Cloudflares data shows a spike in traffic the day of the temporary ban, with levels remaining steadily higher in the following week. Traffic for alternatives began to grow a week ahead of the expected shutdown, driven by the increased popularity of RedNote, known as Xiaohongshu in China, Belson said. In the meantime, Meta has begun offering creators deals to promote Instagram on TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Snapchat and other services, CNBC reported earlier this month.