The creator of TikTok laments the app where ‘overnight’ success is possible

This isn’t the first time a major social media platform has disappeared.

In 2017, Vine – a platform where users can share up to six-second-long video clips – shut down.

For creators at the time, it was a shock.

Q Park, a content creator with 37.7 million followers on TikTok, is one of those people.

He spent years building a following on Vine – the only platform he used at the time – and when it disappeared, he said “it felt like my whole business was closed”.

But in some ways, it was also good for him. It forced him to learn how to create different content for different audiences.

“That experience showed me that if you believe in your ability to create content, you will build a following elsewhere,” Park Park told the BBC.

As the ban approaches, some creators have begun to join another Chinese platform, RedNote – a TikTok competitor that is popular with young people in China, Taiwan and other Mandarin-speaking populations.

RedNote was the most downloaded app in the US Apple App Store earlier this week.

While some creators are diversifying where they post in hopes of increasing viewership elsewhere, others hope the ban won’t work.

“TikTok is a beast,” Park said. “Part of me thinks it might be too big to fail.”

“It’s going to be revived anyway, it’s too big for the economy right now.”

Additional reporting from Grace Dean and Nathalie Jiménez.