TikTok’s Takeover: The Creator Economy Catalyst
The creator economy is the modern-day American dream, reinvented. It is no longer enough to simply scrape by in your gorgeous suburban home surrounded by friends and family — today’s workforce is looking for passion, to create projects they care about while maintaining the ability to support themselves financially. For many of these people, the monetization of social media promises a catalyst towards the inevitable creator economy, where people earn their income by accessing their inner artisté to make content for the masses. TikTok has only accelerated this trend.
For an app that is known primarily for it’s video content, TikTok is at best an aggregator. Every video on the platform comes from individual, independent creators. The allure of each major social media platform is as simple as the algorithm it presents, and how successfully that algorithm can match users with interesting content. TikTok is fully aware of its dependence on creators, offering cash to those creators that bring in value for the company. Methods like these are becoming more common across social media, with Instagram and Facebook also offering creator funds to keep content on their sites.
Social media has also made it easier for content creation in general, from filters on Instagram that enhance otherwise normal-looking photos, to video editing features on TikTok that consolidate the entire filmmaking process in-app. These features make it so that anybody can become a creator. But when literally anybody can successfully create engaging content, creators become interchangeable. Anybody can create content, and therefore creators have extremely limited bargaining power over their own work.
The creator economy promises that only 1,000 true fans can provide a comfortable living for content producers. However, only the top creators seem to earn a livable income from their work. A recent Twitch hack revealed that the most popular 1% of creators earned more than half of all revenue on the platform. Wealth inequality among creators is massive, and the need for a “middle class” in the creator economy becomes more apparent by the day.
TikTok has made honorable attempts at assisting creators on the platform, as evident by the launch of “TikTok Jump,” a link-out service that allows creators to extend their reach on the app into additional programs. This allows users to easily access recipes, quizzes, and other resources provided by the creator, increasing engagement and ultimately building new verticals for entrepreneurial TikTok stars.
In another effort to aid creators, TikTok is branching out into non-fungible tokens as a form of monetization. Last month, the company announced its first creator-led NFT collection, featuring six culturally significant videos that are available on Ethereum and powered by Immutable X. In diversifying the ways in which creators can monetize content, TikTok is securing its future in the larger creator economy and maintaining the loyalty of its most valuable asset.
Another phenomenon on the app has been the rise of the TikTok tour guide, where influencers highlight businesses in their home cities. On the surface, this seems like a win/win. Creators are able to promote their favorite spots, and consumers are able to learn about new places and see cities from a new perspective. In practice, TikTok tourism is far more complicated than that. Some businesses have begun offering influencers free meals and experiences in hopes that they will highlight them in a video, which lends itself to a “pay to play” model where mom and pop shops suffer as more established companies pounce on the opportunity to partner with creators. Additionally, influencers are far more likely to spotlight new, trendier businesses, contributing to gentrification in some areas while disregarding community staples that would benefit from the exposure.
While the majority of creators struggle to gain the following they need to fully take advantage of the burgeoning creator economy, TikTok has become home to several “rags to riches” story that offers hope to aspiring creators everywhere. For example, Italian TikToker Khaby Lame was laid off from his job as a factory worker before he became a star after posting his reactions to already-viral “life hack” videos. He now boasts millions of followers on the platform, and undoubtedly makes a comfortable living off of his authentic, unpolished content. It is also important to note that Lame posts on TikTok daily, with regular updates to his Instagram story as well to maintain his online presence.
While the life of an influencer may seem glamorous, many creators have experienced burnout as a result of the stress of public life and insatiable need to produce new content regularly. Even TikTok megastar Charli D’Amelio “lost the passion” for creating content after facing negativity online. In addition to hateful comments and an overwhelming demand for new videos, the content creation process is arduous. Take this Kindred Media TikTok video for example — just spelling out the CRISPR acronym on this video took approximately one hour to edit. Add in the time spent filming and editing the remainder of this two minute video, the entire process took about three hours to complete. For creators that are expected to put out two or three videos per day, seven days a week, the task of creating content becomes all-consuming.
Additionally, monetizing and maintaining an online presence is emotionally taxing. For those that have successfully monetized their personality, a hateful comment can feel like a personal attack. And when a video does not perform as well as previous content has, creators are stuck on an emotional roller coaster that threatens their livelihood. TikTok is inherently volatile as a platform, and even creators that have gone viral in the past are not guaranteed to maintain their audience. The vicious cycle of building, maintaining, and monetizing has all but destroyed some of the platform’s most valuable creators.
While the creator economy is largely hailed as a Utopian future, there are considerable challenges in building a system that is accessible and fair for the majority. TikTok is leading the way for aspiring creators to easily monetize their online presence, but burnout threatens to destroy the platform from the inside out. Ultimately, this is an exciting time for creators — it has never been easier to make professional-level content or to access and monetize their audience. As TikTok continues on the path towards creator-economy dominance, it is vitally important to remember that the power does, and should, reside with the people on the platform.
