Snapchat parent Snap Inc. and Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, saw their recent Wall Street hot streak continue Monday, as tech companies including Google-owned YouTube stand to benefit the most from TikTok’s looming ban set for Jan. 19.
By midday Monday, Snap’s stock was up 3.4% to $12.38 per share. Those gains added to Snap’s recent run, with the company, led by CEO Evan Spiegel, seeing its stock price jump 15% in the past week.
Snap’s stock was given a “buy” rating by Guggenheim analyst Michael Morris on Friday, with Morris projecting Snapchat added 8 million daily users between October and December. Those user gains would push Snapchat to 451 million daily users by the end of Q4. Snap is expected to share its Q4 report in early February.
Meta, meanwhile, has enjoyed more modest gains — its stock price is up 2.7% on Monday, hitting $619.31 per share, and has increased 5.2% in the past week. And Alphabet, the parent company of Google and YouTube, has made similar gains. Alphabet’s stock is up 3% on Monday to $198.93 per share, and its share price is up about 4.5% in the past week.
The recent gains for those tech giants indicates investors could be looking to put their money into platforms that would benefit from TikTok being booted from the U.S. The popular app, owned by Beijing-based Bytedance, is set to be banned from the States on Jan. 19 — one day before president-elect Donald Trump takes office.
The TikTok ban was initially floated during Trump’s first administration, before ultimately being passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden in April. The chief concern U.S. lawmakers have with TikTok is that it doubles as a spyware app for the Chinese government; TikTok, according to Chinese law, is required to share user data with China’s communist government, if it is asked to do so.
Trump has since changed his tune on supporting a TikTok ban, saying last year that he’d like to “save” the app. And last month, Trump reiterated he would like to keep TikTok in the U.S. He said he’d “take a look” at saving TikTok, noting he had a “warm spot” in his heart for it because it helped get young people to vote for him.
TikTok has been scrambling to find a legal remedy to keep its app in the U.S. as its ban date approaches. In mid-December, The U.S. Supreme Court said it would listen to arguments from TikTok on why it should block the law behind the ban. That crucial hearing is set for Friday.
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