Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
TikTok stars wanted to be taken seriously in 2018. Now, one year after Musical.ly became TikTok and skyrocketed its creators into mainstream fame, they want to start earning money for the videos they produce.
“On YouTube, you get money from the views you get, but on TikTok you don’t get money from views right now,” Javi Luna, a TikTok creator with 4 million followers, told the BBC.
For the most part, TikTok doesn’t offer creators a way to make money on its platform. Creators can secure sponsorships and brand deals for individual posts, but those deals have to be secured without TikTok’s help. A select group of creators hand-picked by TikTok can also earn money through tipping in live streams, but that doesn’t cover the most popular part…