Canadian creators who moved to the U.S. in search of fame and fortune are bracing for the impact of the TikTok ban. For aspiring TikTok stars, moving south of the border offered the allure of fame and fortune, especially once they get too big for Canadian advertisers’ budgets. Now, those influencers are nervously awaiting news of the ban.

Amongst them are married couple Jess McKay and Ryan Robinson-Hatton, who moved to New York City in 2022 and have a combined 170,000 followers and more than 15 million likes across their TikTok accounts. The couple each have their own dedicated followings on the app—McKay’s account is focused on fitness and athleisure, Robinson-Hatton’s on electric vehicles—and run a popular TikTok for their two Italian greyhounds, Adelaide and Phoebe. 

The move from Toronto to the U.S., initially so the couple could pursue careers as actors, turned a side-hustle into a full-time gig, opening the door to brand deals and boosting McKay’s creator partnership with athleisure company Lululemon. McKay estimates that 95 per cent of her income now comes from content creation, including brand deals and affiliate marketing, and a small sliver from platform monetization schemes that allow creators to be paid for views on their content. But with TikTok facing a ban in the U.S., their livelihoods are under threat. 

When asked for comment, TikTok pointed to a statement it issued in December claiming that “small businesses on TikTok would lose more than US$1 billion in revenue and creators would suffer almost US$300 million in lost earnings in just one month” if the ban went into effect.

“TikTok is my largest audience and the biggest draw for brands who want to partner with me,” McKay said. She said she doesn’t expect her and her husband will need to leave New York, but is concerned about where brand dollars will go. While she has followings on Instagram and YouTube, they’re much smaller than on TikTok. McKay said she had tried to diversify to avoid relying too much on one platform but that the TikTok ban was “a scary time.”

Sara Koonar, the president and founder of Platform Media & Management, a Toronto-based influencer talent agency, said Canadian influencers often look to move to the U.S. once they’re too big for Canadian ad budgets, which are “ a fraction” of those south of the border. “When you shift into becoming a macro influencer, somebody with millions of followers, the opportunities in Canada—you’re priced out of those,” she said. And with so many Americans using TikTok, Canadian creators often have more followers in the U.S. than at home.

U.S. cities with large creator communities and major annual events like New York Fashion Week offer considerable in-person networking opportunities with brand marketers, Koonar said. “If you’re on the ground, in person, in front of the clients who are hiring you every day, you’re more likely to get those opportunities,” she added.

Ray Ligaya, director of talent at Mississauga-based creator talent agency Viral Nation, said TikTok’s monetization scheme can also influence some creators’ decisions to move overseas. The company’s creator rewards program, which pays creators a varying rate of cents per thousand views on their videos, is available in the U.S. and some other countries, but not Canada. TikTok also has the TikTok Shop feature in the U.S., which lets creators earn money through affiliate links and promotional videos.

TikToker Dan Rodo, who moved to Austin, Texas, from Toronto in January 2023, knows all too well the difference in opportunities available on either side of the U.S. Canada border. In Canada, he said, even with a following of 1.8 million people on TikTok and videos being viewed 40 million times, he wasn’t earning a dime. In Texas, he started a new account, which now has 1.1 million followers, to access TikTok’s creator rewards program. 

He estimated his average monthly income from the creator fund is now around US$3,000 but could be as low as US$200; some majorly viral videos have netted upwards of US$7,000. The revenue-per-thousand views creators earn fluctuates week to week, he said, and isn’t reliable. 

Rodo said that his Canadian and U.S. TikTok accounts hold two of his largest follower counts, and the latter of which could soon be almost useless.

But Rodo said he believes he’ll be insulated from the impacts of the potential ban thanks to his followings on other platforms—1.3 million on YouTube and 374,000 on Instagram—and other revenue streams, including merchandise and his Patreon. “It’s more disappointing than devastating,” he said.

Alexandra Nikolajev, a 39-year-old content creator from Toronto who moved to Los Angeles in 2021, said she expects to take a financial hit from the ban. Nikolajev has 93,000 followers on TikTok, where she posts about pop culture and celebrities. 

She moved to L.A. when her employer promoted her to its U.S. office, but said the move also boosted her creator career, making it easier for her to network with marketing teams in Hollywood and attend special screenings. Her content creation income—a combination of brand deals and the money she makes from going live on TikTok through a bonus platform the company invites some creators into, as well as some money from the company’s creator fund—now makes up around 20 per cent of her annual income. 

“Even though I have a nine-to-five job, living in L.A. is not cheap, and I do allocate those funds to my expenses,” she said. Now, with TikTok potentially vanishing from the U.S. overnight, much of that money may soon be gone.