Tiktok a moneymaker for the savvy
New Zealand TikTokers are earning enough money through sponsorships and brand deals to ditch full-time work, despite the video platform itself not offering Kiwis payment for their video views.
Aucklander Daniel Rhodes’ TikTok account had become a stable moneymaker for the 23-year-old. So much so, he has stepped back from full-time to part-time work as a social media executive, to focus on content creation.
Rhodes began TikToking in 2019 after he graduated from AUT with a bachelor of communications studies.
‘‘I started applying for internships after summer, but we went into lockdown and all those internship opportunities went down the drain, which was not ideal at the time.
‘‘As I was unemployed in that lockdown, I saw TikTok as something fun to do to fill the time. I’m starting to think it was a blessing I was unemployed.’’
In the second lockdown he started to take the social media platform more seriously. He went from 50,000 followers to more than 100,000 by the end of the year.
At one point this year he was gaining 100,000 followers every four weeks. He now has almost 840,000.
His most popular videos had 15.3 million, 12.1 million and 13.2 million views each.
Olivia Purdon, a 29-year-old Aucklander currently residing in New Plymouth, works full-time as an HR business partner and does TikTok videos on the side. She started making TikToks during the lockdown in 2021.
‘‘I just posted daily vlogs to keep myself motivated. I found the second lockdown a bit stressful and it significantly impacted my mental health. It was a fun, creative way for me to keep myself accountable and document the little things I did each day to pass the time and care for myself.’’
She said her account was a refection of her, with a combination of health and wellness product recommendations and recipes. She also posted daily video blogs (vlogs) on what it was like working in a corporate role.
Her first real success came in September last year, when she noticed a trend and put her own spin on it. The video received 1.5 million views and pushed her to capitalise on the momentum.
‘‘I took this as my chance to film and put out as many videos as possible, which gained more traction, and on it goes.’’
TikTok does not offer paid-per-view or paid-per-video options to New Zealand creators.
Instead,
Purdon earned money through sponsored posts. The sum depended on the brand and what she was being asked to do, she said.
At first, she contacted brands she liked to establish a small portfolio of partnerships. From there, brands started to come to her. Now her agency, Born Bred Talent, handles all her sponsorships.
‘‘I still work full-time as an HR business partner because I love it and enjoy the mix of my corporate job and TikTok. Social media income generally isn’t consistent, so I enjoy the stability of my fulltime job as well as a creative outlet.’’
Born and Bred talent manager Emily Hatzopoulos said that even though payper-view was currently not available in Aotearoa, it was important to remember that compared to major countries such as the US, TikTok was still in an embryonic phase here.
‘‘Born Bred works closely with TikTok directly and can assure creators that there are exciting developments coming to New Zealand in the coming months as the platform continues to grow.
‘‘My advice to all talent is to keep making exceptional and unique content specific to the New Zealand market and continue testing and utilising platformspecific features.’’