Sports Leagues Were Already All In on TikTok. Then the Coronavirus Hit

Long before the pandemic, the major American sports leagues started cultivating their presence on TikTok, the emerging social video app owned by the Chinese firm ByteDance. Now, many of those leagues, along with their teams and athletes, are rerouting their social media strategies and rethinking TikTok during an outbreak that promises to render their sports dormant for the foreseeable future. As critic Amanda Hess wrote in The New York Times, "the visual grammar of TikTok was developed by teenagers messing around alone in their childhood bedrooms," so during the coronavirus crisis, the platform feels "oddly unchanged."

During this time of physical isolation for players and fans, athletes, their jobs rendered impossible by an invisible plague, are acting a lot like those teenagers, shedding nervous energy and, for now, connecting with fans from the safety of their own homes. The leagues, in turn, are playing the role of stage parents, keeping their wards busy during an inexplicably weird moment in time.

While the advertising and media industries try to figure out how to operate in this new reality we all live in, sell-side ad tech is taking measures to ensure buyers can make their payments, as ad budgets are being pulled and memories of recent clawbacks linger.

Major media events like the Olympics and live sports are getting postponed or canceled left and right, while much of Hollywood’s TV and movie production has been shut down. But so far, it’s all systems go for three major upcoming streaming services, which will make their debuts in a much different entertainment landscape—and a possibly very locked-down populace.

And while foot traffic across a bevy of industries may indicate the effects of the coronavirus on people’s daily lives, so does the 60% of Snapchat’s users who are concerned about the coronavirus—that number is higher among women (66%) and users 35 and older (67%). Only 52% of men said they are worried.

Despite now taking place in 2021, the event will still be called the 2020 Games, the IOC said.

The decision deprives NBCUniversal of what execs had long been calling “the media event of the year”—and a key element of its marketing campaign for upcoming streaming service Peacock—while leaving it with a $1.25 billion-plus ad revenue hole for 2020.

On Tuesday, Pinterest introduced its new Today tab, a central hub on the website for information, curated topics and trending posts. For the time being, it will be chock full of information from the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention—like tips for proper handwashing technique and learning how to manage work and life at home.

Instagram revealed a host of updates related to the coronavirus pandemic Tuesday, highlighted by the rollout of Co-Watching, which enables people to view posts on the Facebook-owned photo- and video-sharing network together while they are video chatting.