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When Brandon Hurst first decided to sell his plants on TikTok Live in 2023, the 32-year-old Sylmar resident didn’t know what to expect. He said he thought he could sell at least 30 plants, but instead sold 250.

Now, three years later, the internet creator, who goes by Brandon the Plant Guy, sells up to 5,000 plants a week, works out of a 3,000-square-foot greenhouse in Sylmar and has a staff of 13. He credits much of this success to the exposure he’s received on TikTok.

“I’d be out of business if it wasn’t for TikTok,” said Hurst. “I would have ended the business and gone back to working the desk job that I was working prior. I was already on that path, that was where we were headed. And then TikTok really did turn that around.”

Hurst is one of the 920,000 California-based businesses using the social media platform to reach new customers and grow their brands, according to new data from consulting firm PF Global.

In 2025, TikTok helped generate $12 billion in advertising and merchandise sales for those businesses and supported 52,000 jobs in the state, said the PF Global report, which was commissioned by TikTok.

Nationwide, economic activity on TikTok last year helped contribute $81 billion to some 8.5 million U.S. businesses, the report said.

The surge in activity reflects a growing trend toward online commerce, as more small businesses and consumers turn to social media platforms like TikTok to buy and sell goods.

“We enable American culture, American creators, American businesses, to reach an audience around the world,” said Nicole Mason, TikTok’s head of U.S. public policy, said during a presentation on Wednesday morning.

The new report comes as TikTok is increasingly eager to tout its economic impact as a newly formed U.S. joint venture. In January, the company was taken over by three managing investors: Silver Lake, Oracle and Emirati investment firm MGX, each holding 15%, with ByteDance retaining 19.9% of investments. This transition came after TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, was under pressure to divest its ownership in the app’s U.S. operations or face a nationwide ban, due to security concerns.

Last month, TikTok also settled a $400-million lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Justice, ending a 2024 lawsuit alleging the company violated federal children’s privacy laws.

TikTok, which operates its U.S. headquarters in Culver City, where it employs several hundred workers, is mostly known for its viral, short-form vertical videos. But, over the years, the platform has become a hub of curated viral content and a central part of many businesses’ marketing strategies.

The app also has features like TikTok Live, where businesses can host live shopping events, and TikTok Shop, which serves as a direct-to-consumer online marketplace.

For its study, PF Global surveyed more than 11,000 adults in the U.S. and 5,000 businesses. The firm also conducted five case studies with U.S. small businesses and TikTok creators and interviewed over 600 people around the country. The data set combined that survey data with government statistics, industry research and TikTok’s own internal data.

PF Global recently published a similar economic report for the U.K. and is working on reports for 10 other European countries with TikTok.

Neil Ross, a partner at PF Global, said a common global theme is that TikTok users are more likely to see something on the platform and go out and do it.

“People around the world are using it as a kind of digital front door to work out where to go, what to shop, what experiences to have,” Ross said.

The U.S. report states that 27 million Americans “visited an independent shop, cafe or restaurant for the first time after seeing it on the platform.”

The app’s roots date to 2014, when an app called Musical.ly was launched in Shanghai. In 2016, Chinese tech company ByteDance launched a similar platform in China called Douyin.

As the apps grew in popularity, ByteDance picked up on their potential. It purchased Musical.ly in 2017 and combined all these platforms into one, named TikTok. Over the next few years, the app began its rapid ascent, hooking in users with a curated algorithm and viral trends. Today, 200 million Americans use TikTok every month, according to PF Global.

“On a daily basis, TikTok powers real economic impact across the United States, helping entrepreneurs grow their businesses, reach new customers, and create jobs across the country,” said Adam Presser, TikTok’s chief executive in a statement.

At a press conference on Wednesday Michael O’Leary, the CEO of budget airline Ryanair, unveiled new routes from UK airports including Birmingham, Edinburgh, Liverpool, and London

Ryanair has unveiled its newly expanded winter schedule, with 22 new routes from UK airports added.

The budget airline will be adding 22 destinations to its schedule this winter, with Birmingham, Edinburgh, Liverpool, and London airports benefiting the most.

This morning, Ryanair also announced that it was adding nineteenth-based aircraft at Manchester Airport this winter, helping it to run one extra route from the North West hub. Ryanair is increasing its flight frequencies on another 26 routes from Manchester, including holiday hotspots like Malaga, Palma de Mallorca and Madrid, as well as city break destinations like Barcelona, Belfast, Venice, Porto, Prague and Krakow.

There are many eye-catching flights among the list, including the new winter sunshine route from Birmingham to Marrakech, which regularly enjoys mild winter temperatures. The bulk of the other routes are to northern and western European destinations where more festive pleasures are on the itinerary.

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The new routes are:

• Birmingham – Copenhagen
• Birmingham – Rome Fiumicino
• Birmingham – Marrakech
• Birmingham – Tirana
• Birmingham – Warsaw Modlin
• Bristol – Knock
• Bristol – Warsaw Modlin
• East Midlands – Budapest
• Edinburgh – Milan Malpensa
• Edinburgh – Tirana
• Edinburgh – Warsaw Modlin
• London Stansted – Glasgow
• London Stansted – Malmö
• London Stansted – Parma
• London Luton – Venice
• Liverpool – Milan Bergamo
• Liverpool – Copenhagen
• Liverpool – Gdańsk
• Liverpool – Porto
• Liverpool – Tirana
• Liverpool – Warsaw
• Manchester – Warsaw Modlin

The new route announcement came as the boss of Ryanair warned that air fares would “no doubt” rise next year for summer holidaymakers amid the surging price of oil and the Iran war. Earlier this month, oil prices rose above 100 dollars a barrel for the first time since July after the latest round of strikes in the conflict.

At a press conference yesterday Michael O’Leary, chief executive of the budget airline, said ticket prices were “only going one way”, which is “significantly upward”. He said: “Fares for Ryanair passengers and every other passenger into the summer of 2027 are going to rise materially, I believe, because of significantly higher oil prices.

“I have no doubt fares are rising next year. “The question is by how much. We’re essentially hedged this year at about 80 dollars a barrel. If we hedge next year at 100 dollars a barrel, our oil bill goes up by 25%. Our oil bill this year is six billion. If it goes up by 25%, that’s seven-and-a-half billion next year.”

The airline has previously warned that it believes some of its competitors will “struggle to maintain capacity or even survive” this winter if oil prices remain high. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the average global price of jet fuel rose 7.4% last week compared to the week before to 194.90 dollars per barrel.