Tik-Tok: The New Age of Influencer Marketing?
What is Tik-Tok?
Tik-Tok is a social media video app for creating and sharing short lip-sync, comedy, and talent videos that are extremely popular among teens and young adults. You’ve probably heard about Musical.ly as well, Tik-Tok is essentially Musical.ly, just under the same name. When Musical.ly first came out many people were calling it “the new Vine”. Musical.ly launched in 2014 and it gained a dedicated user base over the next few years. In November 2017, it was acquired by ByteDance, a Beijing-based media and tech company. At the time, ByteDance already owned a similar app, TikTok, which had launched in China in 2016. ByteDance decided to join the two apps, thus Musical.ly and Tik-Tok became one. All user accounts and videos were moved to TikTok, and the app formerly known as Musical.ly ceased to exist.
What do you mean, “The New Vine”?
When Tik-Tok was released, millions of people worldwide couldn’t help but notice it’s similarities with the formerly departed app, Vine, a US-based short-form video app that was known for clips only being 6-seconds long. Vine became popular with content creators — otherwise known as “viners” — who used to create comedy and music shorts in just six seconds and the app eventually grew to 200 million active users. It also engaged audiences to watch more than 1.5 billion “loops” per day. Vine was truly one of the best apps from 2013 to 2017 amongst many as well. Like Vine, Tik-Tok has shied away from monetisation on the platform but that hasn’t stopped young creatives from to capitalize on their six seconds and begin gaining fame. TikTok users have now begun using the app to launch careers in the entertainment industry.
So do creators on Tik-Tok make their money?
As mentioned before, there is currently no way to directly make money from the app since it does not pay or offer incentives to their content creators. It’s all about influencer marketing. The content creators on Tik-Tok are aware of their influencing power and they utilize that influencing power through various means in their posts to reach monetary gain.
These Tik-Tok content creators are making creative content on the platform and brands like Coca-Cola are paying the top creators to make ads for them in a creative way. In that sense, these Tik-Tok stars have moved from just being talented teenagers or young adults creating content to actual influencers. Companies are trying to reach out and connect with Generation-Z, which is why Tik-Tok influencers are given the opportunity to create advertisements on the app.
The majority of Tik-Tok content creators have also created Instagram and YouTube accounts where they’re able to do more brand deals and sponsorship’s and reach audiences that they may not be able to on Tik-Tok alone.
Another way Tik-Tok content creators can make money is through live streaming. Tik-Tok users can donate to their favorite content creator via sticker gifts during their live stream, which is like an emoji that pops up on the content creator’s screen. Donations that are up to $100 get a huge font and the star and other Tik-Tok users who are watching the stream can see who donated. The profile name and the sticker appear on everyone’s screen.
Will Tik-Tok last?
Honestly, I doubt it. The app will probably be around for some time and might last longer than Vine if it continues to do well but in terms of making money from Tik-Tok, the influencers and content creators who are popular cannot survive only on the paychecks coming in from a 15 to 60-second ad. As mentioned before, a lot of Tik-Tok’s top content creators have other social media platforms such as Instagram and YouTube that they’re utilizing to their advantage as well. Tik-Tok is fun and great which is evident in the 500 million active users — more than Vine ever had, but its longevity is still in question.
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Written by Zoe Selesi
