Making Money From TikTok

Illustration (Raga Granada/VOI)

We have discussed the success of TikTok's strategy of bringing in new waves of users through "How TikTok Deletes Tacky Image and Becomes a Popular Platform". Now people are flocking to TikTok celebrities. For the sake of popularity that goes hand in hand with profit. VOI's Article Series "Tactics to Get Up on the TikTok Stage" continues. About TikTok as a money machine.

Popularity and wealth are two entities that go hand in hand. The more popular a person is, the more wealth follows. No wonder people are now competing to become famous.

One way to do this is by becoming a TikTok star. There have been many new faces who are famous through this platform from China. Including the first person to get followers of 100 million people, Charli D'Amelio.

How much is the income from TikTok? How about the number of domestic influencers? Let's peel thoroughly.

Even though TikTok was introduced in 2016, the popularity of the application, which is a place for many funny, educational, and creative video creators, just exploded in 2019. TikTok's fruit is one of the applications with the highest number of downloads in the whole country.

What's more, TikTok already has 800 daily active users around the world. Thanks to this success, the application created by Zhang Yiming also introduced a new star (TikTok).

As reported by Forbes, Wednesday, March 31, there are many young people who have gained popularity and love from TikTok. Some of them are Charli D'Amelio and Addison Rae Easterling who get fantastic income from TikTok.

Both of them can collect the coffers of income of more than one million dollars a year. Most of the income came from their creative efforts to monetize their fame, mainly through the endorsement of well-known brands.

In fact, both of them used to be ordinary people who happened to have a talent for dancing. Reflecting on Charli D'Amelio, for example. The teenager from the United States (US) is now dubbed the Queen of TikTok.

This is because this 17-year-old beautiful girl has the largest number of followers on TikTok, which is 111 million followers. To get the first 100 million followers, Charli D'Amalio only needed 18 months, starting from the time she uploaded her first video on TikTok in June 2019.

Thanks to that, Charli D'Amalio is now enjoying success as a young influencer. She's also releasing merchandise under her own brand, such as a $ 60 limited edition hoodie.

The total income from TikTok is even estimated at US $ 4 million or around Rp. 58.8 billion. The same success was also achieved by Easterling. Two years ago, she only made a video of dancing for fun which happened to be uploaded on TikTok.

Thanks to her flexible movements, with a little background as a teenage dancer, Easterling has caught many eyes. She managed to reach tens of millions of fans. Moreover, her fame has made Easterling recognized throughout the Louisiana State University (LSU) campus.

Slowly but surely, Easterling's fame began to generate a lot of dollars. Easterling, which currently has 78 million followers, has recorded an income of around 5 million dollars, equivalent to Rp. 72 billion.

Micro influencer income

Not only abroad. Domestic TikTok players who have followers of around 90-100 thousand have also been hit by the windfall. Denis Chariesta, for example. In an interview, she openly posted endorsement rates ranging from Rp. 1-5 million for one post.

In line with that, her fame in TikTok helped raise the turnover of her flower shop business, Fleur De DC. From this business, Danise can pocket a turnover of Rp. 200 million per month. This number is fairly good for the number of followers who at that time (2020) reached 94 thousand.

It is possible that Danise is one of the TikTok players who can perpetuate the brand's popularity. For this reason, any content intended for advertising has the potential to become the best-selling endorser. Related to this, the Bizlap Pages have detailed the important aspects of making endorsements sellable.

First, knowing the TikTok player portfolio. Second, TikTok players with active followers. Third, adjust the brand profile with TikTok players. Fourth, adjust the TikTok figure to the funds they have.

Illustration (Source: Unsplash)

British marketing strategist James Whatley even has his own theory regarding the best-selling endorsement model on TikTok. The popularity of TikTok players is the key. He also concluded that TikTok is an effective medium to spend on advertising for marketing a brand.

TikTok is proof that various world-renowned brands are starting to leave traditional media such as TV or advertisements on billboards. As a result, TikTok and its users were flooded with advertisers.

“(TikTok) is a hot novelty and a lot of money is being spent on it. The fastest way to gain traction on TikTok is to get the number one influencer to promote your stuff. Just this week TikTok and (computer game) Fortnite announced a partnership agreement with a competition to remake TikTok dance in Fortnite," said James Whatley as quoted by The Guardian, Wednesday, March 31.

“Every year there is always a new platform and clients want to allocate 10% of their budget for it. Last year was Instagram Stories, before that was Snapchat. TikTok is 2020's favorite,” he added. Then how is TikTok itself making a profit?

Infographics (VOI/Raga Granada)

How TikTok makes money

Perhaps the famous TikTok is known as one of the most interesting profit hunting applications lately. However, behind it all, TikTok continues to compete and monetize its users. In the competition, TikTok also received a large income cake. Because TikTok can encourage the involvement of well-known brand owners to work together with TikTok.

"Short videos on TikTok are impressive, enabling creators and brands to communicate content creatively," said Head of Commercial TikTok Indonesia, Nur Lianasyah, as quoted by Kompas, Wednesday, March 31.

In addition, TikTok videos are claimed to reach new audiences. Apart from advertising, TikTok has also built brand affinity and encouraged activity outside of their platform. Because of that, TikTok opens the door as wide as possible for brand partners ranging from small scale to corporations who want to collaborate with TikTok content creators. The more that you work together, the bigger TikTok will be in the future.

"For monetization, we always explore various opportunities, from advertising to content partnerships with small-scale brand partners to corporations who want to embrace the creativity of the TikTok community," Nur Lianasyah concluded.

Follow the Article Series of this edition: Imitating Charli D'Amelio's Method To Be TikTok's Universal Queen