After ban threats, TikTok touts a $12-billion boost to California businesses

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Set us as preferred When Brandon Hurst first decided to sell his plants on TikTok Live in 2023, the 32-year-old Sylmar resident didn’t know what to expect.He said he thought he could sell at least 30 plants, but instead sold 250.

Now, three years later, the internet creator, who goes by Brandon the Plant Guy, sells up to 5,000 plants a week, works out of a 3,000-square-foot greenhouse in Sylmar and has a staff of 13.He credits much of this success to the exposure he’s received on TikTok.“I’d be out of business if it wasn’t for TikTok,” said Hurst.

“I would have ended the business and gone back to working the desk job that I was working prior.I was already on that path, that was where we were headed.

And then TikTok really did turn that around.”Hurst is one of the 920,000 California-based businesses using the social media platform to reach new customers and grow their brands, according to new data from consulting firm PF Global.In 2025, TikTok helped generate $12 billion in advertising and merchandise sales for those businesses and supported 52,000 jobs in the state, said the PF Global report, which was commissioned by TikTok.Nationwide, economic activity on TikTok last year helped contribute $81 billion to some 8.5 million U.S.

businesses, the report said.The surge in activity reflects a growing trend toward online commerce, as more small businesses and consumers turn to social media platforms like TikTok to buy and sell goods.“We enable American culture, American creators, American businesses, to reach an audience around the world,” said Nicole Mason, TikTok’s head of U.S.public policy, said during a presentation on Wednesday morning.The new report comes as TikTok is increasingly eager to tout its economic impact as a newly formed U.S.

joint venture.In January, the company was taken over by three ma...