It’s time to make money from TikTok – WWD

TikTok unwrapped holiday gifts for creators on Wednesday, revealing new ways for them to make money.

The social video company has revealed two updates: Video Tips and Gifts. The latter effectively removes the limitations on virtual giveaways currently available to live event organizers. Fans can now tip and send gifts to their favorite influencers without the need for a live video.

“From those who do TikTok ‘just for fun’ videos for hustlers and creatives, we know creators have different goals, motivations and expectations”, social media The company explained in a blog post. So, with that in mind, it is expanding the possibilities of allowing “the TikTok community to reward their favorite creators.”

Online tips and gifts, like stickers and icons, have become quite trendy among social media sites, including giants like Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube and up-and-coming players like Clubhouse and Triller. It’s a fairly lightweight way for tech platforms to ignite fan enthusiasm and keep creators motivated without much direct investment.

TikTok’s version of Tips works like this: The feature, which has been fresh from beta to official launch, involves a relatively simple setup. Creators then receive a new “Tips” icon on their profile page.

Fans can tap on it to see how many supporters and tips that person has received, or send their own tip of $5, $10, $15 or custom, with a $100 limit per transaction, up to a daily limit of 100 transactions or $500 in full. People have the option to deposit bonuses anonymously, if they wish.

TikTok indicates that recipients get 100 percent of the value, minus a possible processing fee, with Stripe processing payment transactions.

Eligibility criteria for creators is a minimum of 100,000 followers and a TikTok account in good standing according to the account’s Community Guidelines. They must also be 18 years of age or older and a US-based Business account is not eligible.

The Video Gifts model is even simpler for fans, although the monetization process is different – TikTok uses giveaways as an metric to help determine “quality” content.

“With Video Gifts, creators can be rewarded by TikTok on a video-by-video basis,” the company wrote on the features page. “This can inspire creators to spend more time creating quality videos and motivate viewers to show their appreciation for creators who have done so. Mutually beneficial. ”

Once a creator turns on the Video Gift setting, video commenters – whether live or pre-recorded – can tap to send diamond icons or other giveaways.

These new features are rolled into TikTok’s new Creator Next, a portal containing creator-driven monetization features. This section also includes the newly updated Creators Market, which opens to accept more creators.

This section allows relevant individuals and brands to find each other – much like an influencer-matching site. Creative applicants must have at least 10,000 followers to be eligible.

TikTok is clearly amplifying its monetization efforts, and in fact, it is also planning to expand its reach globally. Supply in the US, UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain will eventually expand to Canada and Australia in the coming months.