Explain TikTok to me.
Originating in September 2016 in Beijing, China (where it was known as Douyin), TikTok was rebranded for a global audience as TikTok in 2017. TikTok is a live video editing and sharing platform that lets users add effects and special effects to their videos in real time, including filters, edits, time lapse, voiceovers, and green screens.
As of 2020, three years after its release to the global market, TikTok had racked up over 2 billion downloads.
How this makes TikTok so attractive for so many people?
TikTok’s success can be attributed to a number of different factors, including its user-friendly design, innovative scroll-to-view video function, smart pattern algorithm, and entertaining and simple tools.
The app’s features make even the most serious topics, such as Microsoft Excel tutorials, resume writing, and someone’s last day of work, entertaining and approachable, so much so that they become trends. Modifying content with TikTok’s tools is a surefire way to attract the app’s core demographic of young people.
For instance, this yoga video has been trending in TikTok among those who want to be more physically active in their free time:
To start, let’s define “influencer marketing.” There is a certain enchantment to content production and influencer promotion.
Using influential people to promote and place a brand’s products is called “influencer marketing,” a relatively new strategy in the world of advertising.
Each social media system has its own set of “influencers.” In order to effectively market on a given platform, brands need to identify influencers whose voices align with their own.
With more and more companies realising the importance of connecting with millennials, TikTok influencer marketing has exploded in popularity in recent years. For today’s youth, nothing is more annoying than direct marketing attempts, such as spamming them with text messages or emails. TikTok is ideal for this demographic because it provides short, entertaining videos that pique their interest (in more ways than one).
It’s more effective for TikTok content creators in the younger generation to address users of the same age group.
When compared to its rivals, TikTok boasts the highest engagement rates. This is because the platform has a bulletproof algorithm that filters and studies user behaviour to recommend similar content, making influencer marketing easier.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that TikTok sets the pace for new forms of expression on the internet. TikTok’s challenges, filters, and music have helped bring previously obscure artists and songs to the forefront.
For instance, in 2022, the song “Abcdefu” by Gayle became a massive TikTok trend and quickly rose to the third spot on the Billboard US/Canada Hot 100, despite having been released months earlier. As of this writing, it has been used over 2.2 million times, with another 100,000 times for its other TikTok remixes. Billboard’s editors think the song’s catchy hook, which is popular with many TikTok users, makes it ideal for a 15-second viral video (the maximum length of a video on TikTok at launch is 15 seconds).
One of TikTok’s highest-paid content creators and influencers
How much do creators and influencers on TikTok actually make? If Forbes is to be believed, the highest-paid influencers on the platform made $55.5 million U.S. dollars in 2021, a 200% increase over what they made in 2020.
It is estimated that between 30 and 50 percent of the income of the highest-paid TikTok content creators and influencers comes from TikTok brand sponsorships, even though many of them have diversified their income streams beyond TikTok (by, for example, launching their own TV shows, brand deals, acting, and music careers).
How much do creators and influencers make on TikTok, and how do they get paid?
With the advent of TikTok, content creators and social media influencers now have a new avenue for monetization. Don’t assume there’s only one way to monetize your TikTok videos. Australian content creator Jakey Boehm, who made $34,000 while he slept, calls TikTok “life-changing money.”
Income Distribution from the Creator Fund
Creator funds are how TikTok compensates its users who make original videos. Payouts to creators are contingent on factors like user interaction, video views, and adherence to the terms of service and community guidelines. This creator fund was established to help the app’s creators and attract more users.
TikTok’s creator fund system has received a lot of criticism for its low payout of only $0.02 to $0.03 per thousand views. Preston Seo, a personal finance influencer, has claimed that he makes between $9 and $38 per day from the fund thanks to the content he produces.
At first glance, this may not seem like a very good compensation for content creation, but money is money, and hobbyist content creators are likely to be quite pleased with a daily payout of $40. But if you’re serious about making content for TikTok and getting paid for it, you’ll need to be at the top of your TikTok game to make a decent living from the creator fund.
One drawback is that TikTok only pays out creator funds in the US, UK, DE, FR, IT, and SP right now. Still, we’ll go over some of the other ways you can cash in on TikTok below.