What's this TikTok thing all about?
 

I've recently discovered TikTok. I've heard about it for a long time but I've only recently checked it out. I'm curious to know where money fits into this. I don't see any adverts popping up. No one ever asks for my credit card details. How do the creators make money, if at all, on TikTok? How do the owners of TikTok make money from it all?

Smut books do tons of advertising on BookTok.

Don't TikTok creators pay to get their stuff into other user's feed??

From what I can tell, TikTok is a strangely self-perpetuating marketing engine with lots of paid influencers... look at BookTok, for example, all of the smut authors seemingly have all these "organic" influencers that make videos and memes about all of the smuttiest slop books and women eat this up like crazy.

There are basically these communities that have these "influencers" that guide the conversations about what is hot, and users make their own videos and comments about it. Just go check out BookTok-type stuff yourself and see. It doesn't look very organic but the VIEWS that smut books get are off the charts. Smut books for women are like porn in the early 00's for men from what I can tell, female sexual liberation has reached a point where they consume and pay for sexual material more than men it seems!

If you don't believe me, go look at BookTok and check out all the talk about "romantasy" type books, it's fucking incredible. Same on GoodReads. Rape fantasy type stuff, "enemies to lovers" they call it, is so popular. The writing is so bad and grade 7 level, but women eat this shit up like a Milf Hunter gallery in 2001!

https://thegenzer.substack.com/p/gen...oom-in-romance

https://i.ibb.co/Jn4PGb7/romance.png

What country are you in, if you are not seeing Ads or commercial stuff in general?

it's a fad

I'm in the UK. I haven't download the TikTok app so I'm just viewing it in a browser. I don't think I've ever seen an advert or anything that gives me the option to pay for anything.

Interesting stuff. I've just done a bit of research and have discovered you can buy coins at TikTok which is like a virtual currency and you can give the coins to support a creator you like.

Oh damn, I didn't know that, I gotta sign up and see if I can beg up some dinner! :1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

Completely forgot about that . . .

https://iili.io/2UQCHva.webp

Ah, that makes sense. TikTok is very much phone app first.

TikTok is not great and managing their own policies, so you can be chugging along and thinking you are going to do great and then get paused for long time periods, but there is definitely money to be made.

Also, TikTok's algorithm is actually pretty good at showing folks what they individually want to see, not like the other social networks who all want to cram their own interests down everyone's throats.

Good luck

HMM... I need to add them to my marketing plans.