After years of dreaming, Ruben Trujillo had finally launched his own business. It didn’t go the way he had expected.
It was 2020 and he was having a tough time. Trujillo had just become the primary caregiver for his grandmother, he was let go from his full-time teaching job, and Cafe Emporos, the company he launched that sells personalized coffee filters, was struggling.
As the Biden administration weighs a ban on the app, many budding entrepreneurs fear losing a tool that has helped them build a robust customer base.
“I had this dream, and now I have nothing to show for it,” Trujillo remembered thinking. “I was like, ‘OK, I failed.’ This is what failure feels like. This is the bottom of the bottom.”
Having “nothing to lose,” Trujillo stood in front of a red background with Christmas lights and recorded a few TikTok videos plugging his product.
“They hold cups of coffee inside,” Trujillo said, giving a demonstration of a packet emblazoned with a group photo and a personalized message. He opened the packet, which expands into a single-use filter that a customer can pour hot water into for a fresh cup of coffee.
Suddenly, the clip began picking up views and comments.
“This is no lie the most fascinating and coolest product I’ve seen,” one person wrote. Another added: “My jaw dropped when that bag transformed.”
It quickly dawned on Trujillo that he had hit the jackpot.
“It was like, I had just pulled a slot, and it was just ‘chi-ching, chi-ching, chi-ching,’ ” he said.
His sales skyrocketed. Within a few days, Cafe Emporos had received thousands of sales. Since then, Trujillo has expanded his business to cater toward weddings and large events. He credits it all to those videos.
After UMG pulled its catalog from the app and as political pressure - or even a domestic ban - threatens its viability, artists and their creative and business teams are pondering a world without it.
Trujillo is among Latinx business owners who credit the app for drawing attention to their business.
According to a recent study conducted by consulting firm Oxford Economics and funded by TikTok, 43% of Latinx entrepreneurs said the social media platform is critical to their business’ existence. Additionally, 59% of Latinx owners said TikTok has had a significant impact on their business’ success.
The app is also popular among Latinxs — nearly half of U.S. Latinxs said they used TikTok, per a recent Pew Research Center report.
TikTok has previously argued that if the Biden administration followed through on its threat to ban the app in the United States unless it’s sold by its China-based parent company, ByteDance, it could have adverse consequences for small-business owners who rely on the platform for inexpensive marketing.
Politicians on both sides of the aisle allege that the app is a threat to privacy and national security because the company that owns it is beholden to the Chinese Communist Party. In March, Congress passed a bipartisan bill to compel ByteDance to sell the app or face a ban. The legislation is stalled at the Senate.
“We are hopeful that the Senate will consider the facts, listen to their constituents, and realize the impact on the economy, 7 million small businesses, and the 170 million Americans who use our service,” TikTok spokesperson Alex Haurek said in a statement after the vote.
Jaz and Sam Sears of AZ Taco King — a Mexican restaurant chain in Arizona — said that TikTok helped turn their taco business from a street vending stand to four brick-and-mortar restaurants. Jaz Sears said that oftentimes customers come in with their phone in hand, showing them a video of a dish they saw on the app.
The business even pays an in-store ode to its TikTok following.
“We have neon lights at our restaurants that say ‘TikTok made me do it.’ So [customers] always go to take a picture right next to it,” she said.
The app has also allowed Sears to sharpen her digital marketing skills, an area she previously had no experience in. She’s devoted a lot of time researching the best way to advertise her businesses on the app.
“Sometimes, you do work a lot on a video and it might not go viral,” she said. “It’s like a hit and miss. But then when a video does go viral, you’ll feel it.”
The House’s overwhelming vote to ban TikTok unless it is freed from Chinese control suggests that a ban might be coming soon. But it’s not that simple.
Sears says a TikTok ban would have a direct hit on AZ Taco King, which she claims brings in 70% of sales from TikTok. It would also mean she would have to relearn how to market her business away from social media.
“TikTok grew our business,” she said.
Leila Bedoian, who runs the Local Motel in St. Augustine, Fla., with her husband, Adam Bedoian, said a TikTok ban would be costly for their tourism business, which depends on the app to reach audiences across the nation — even the world.
After working in the hospitality industry for decades, Bedoian shifted gears and bought a motel that she renovated to have a retro aesthetic. At first, the bookings weren’t coming in until TikTok boosted its presence more than any other social media platform.
“I just don’t see how — even if I did paid advertisements — I would be able to reach 45,000 people in a month,” Bedoian said. “So as a small-business owner, I would have to figure out how to replace those views.”
The Latinx experience chronicled
Get the Latinx Files newsletter for stories that capture the multitudes within our communities.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
