TikTok Live Is Chaos — and Creators Are Cashing In (YouTube, Your Move)
The app’s wild, fast-growing variety show pays talent through ‘roses’ and ‘confetti’, has its own agencies, QVC and top stars banking $3M a month
I write about the business of creators. I reported on the Hollywood agencies battling over top creator talent, Amazon’s future in podcasts post-Wondery and how creators are making millions teaching online courses. Email me at natalie@theankler.com
Be honest: When you tap into TikTok, how often do you remember that the app should have stopped working in the United States months ago? I’ll admit, that fact barely registers for me these days. And now, it appears TikTok will continue to operate in this strange limbo for at least another few months.
On Friday, President Trump signaled his plans to extend the deadline for TikTok to find new, non-Chinese owners for the fourth time, even though the latest Sept. 17 deadline was supposed to be the last. Trump claims to have investors lined up to buy out ByteDance as TikTok’s majority owner, but the deal requires China’s approval, and it turns out, Trump hasn’t yet engaged that country’s leader, Xi Jinping, in a conversation about the sale. “At the right time, I’ll do it,” he told reporters.
Though I remain unconvinced that creators are devoting much brainspace to the potential for a TikTok sale (or ban, for that matter) — you can read all about why in this newsletter I wrote about TikTok — I’ve been on the hunt for stories about people who’ve built real livelihoods on the platform.
Then I fell down the rabbit hole that is TikTok Live. Spend just a few minutes with the feature, which allows anyone to broadcast from their phone with the click of a button, and you’ll feel like you’ve witnessed the full range of the human experience — from lobster fishing in Maine to stargazing during a meteor shower to, yes, lounging on your couch for a late-night chat with friends.
Already Hollywood and digital platforms battle for attention against YouTube, the dominant player in the living room, and now here’s TikTok serving up not only an endless scroll of snackable videos but also hours upon hours of live broadcasts. Second only to YouTube in capturing audiences in real time, TikTok Live is redefining what audiences consider entertainment, and what they will pay to watch — now using micropayments similar to those that power another new format disrupting legacy entertainment, microdramas.
On a recent weekday morning, I opened up TikTok, tapped on the little TV icon that transports users into the Live experience, and found myself watching (along with more than 200 other people) a woman curling her hair while appealing to her followers to send her digital gifts that cost real money (and add up to real income for creators). “Who’s going to be the next bestie to send me roses?” she asked as she twisted the barrel of her curling iron. Then she called out the names of the people sending roses her way and prodded her audience, “Besties, we are so close to being to our rose goal!” I swiped and found myself in a garden with a beekeeper retrieving honey from her beehive; another swipe and there was a man in a white tank top playing a jazzy tune with an electric violin.
First introduced in 2019, Live not only has become one of the most distinctive corners of the internet, it’s also grown into a huge business for both TikTok and the creators who regularly broadcast their activities — a business that TikTok projects could generate $77 billion in annual sales by 2027. During the first quarter of the year, watch time on TikTok Live hit 8 billion hours, enough to surpass Twitch and make it the No. 2 livestreaming platform in the world, according to a report from StreamCharts. (YouTube Live was No. 1 with nearly 15 billion hours of watch time.)
Today I dive deep into the Live tab and speak to several of its creators, including a scuba diver, a stargazer and an English teacher, about the insane schedules they keep (some stream for most of their waking hours), the money they can make and the specter of a TikTok ban.
“I built everything from TikTok,” says Gabriella Gomez, a 34-year-old former marketing executive who broadcasts live for as many as 250 hours a month. “I’m very loyal. This is where my base is.”
Below I’ll share valuable intel about:
How TikTok Live turns hair curling, scuba diving, and even game-show style formats into actual paychecks
Which creators are pocketing millions — and how even nobodies with 1,000 followers are suddenly cashing in
The ex-Beats by Dre marketer making $1,000 a day just talking to her phone
The secret “creator agencies” signing thousands of TikTokers — and the catches they don’t want you to know about
The red flags that tell you an agency is about to screw you
Why fans are blowing real money on digital roses, confetti and $500 “Universes”
How “the smart brands” are sneaking into Lives as sponsors