TikTok ban could put 53B U.S. consumer hours ‘up for grabs,’ says Morgan Stanley

The situation is still uncertain, but recent headlines and political activity increase the debate around the possibility of a potential ban or block of some nature of TikTok in the U.S., Morgan Stanley analyst Brian Nowak tells investors. TikTok being blocked from use in the U.S. would impact 95M Americans using the product an average of about 90 minutes per day, putting 53B hours of digital media consumption time "up for grabs," the analyst estimates. While the firm expects many forms of media to benefit in the case of such a hypothetical ban, Meta‘s (META) Reels, YouTube (GOOGL) Shorts and Snap‘s (SNAP) Spotlight are likely best positioned in such a scenario and each platform’s potential earnings upside would be driven by time captured combined with their varying monetization rates, the analyst tells investors.