Only some years in the past, Keith Lee was knowledgeable MMA fighter, doing meals supply and making social media movies to ease his social nervousness.
On Thursday night time, nevertheless, Lee discovered himself underneath the glare of shiny lights and strolling the crimson carpet exterior the historic Hollywood Palladium on Sundown Boulevard about to be acknowledged as TikTok’s “Creator of the Year.”
He and tons of of different creators had gathered for TikTok’s first American awards present. They usually had good cause to have fun.
“[TikTok] is the best way to reach people and I know so many people who rely on it to support their families,” mentioned Lee, who has 17.3 million followers of his informal restaurant opinions. “For me, it’s my career now so I can’t imagine it not being around.”
Creators — a lot of whom are based mostly in Southern California — depend on the app as a key supply of revenue, whereas companies and types flip to the platform and its influencers to advertise their merchandise.
Many had anxious that the app would possibly disappear after the Supreme Courtroom upheld a ban on the platform due to nationwide safety issues raised by President Trump in 2020.
Trump subsequently allowed TikTok, which has workplaces in Culver Metropolis, to maintain working within the U.S. and in September signed an government order outlining the brand new three way partnership.
With 22.6 million followers on TikTok, Adam W. has amassed an enormous viewers for his movies that parody popular culture tendencies.
In a single, he’s a contestant on “The Bachelor,” surrounded by a line of lookalike blond fashions; in one other, he’s consuming matcha lattes with Will Smith.
“That’s so good to hear,” mentioned Adam W. of the brand new possession. “So many people are able to make careers off of TikTok. There’s so many people out there who go to TikTok to get away from their reality and it means a lot to them, so I think it’s really valuable for us to have.”
TikTok mentioned the awards present is meant to have fun the influencers who’ve helped rework the app into a worldwide power that has formed the way in which youthful Individuals store and devour leisure.
“You represent a truly global community of over 1 billion people on TikTok,” Kim Farrell, the app’s world head of creators, mentioned on the occasion. “This year, you showed the world just how much impact creators have.”
Regardless of the historic second, the awards present was not with out technical glitches. Screens that had been supposed to show clips of contestants and visuals throughout speeches had been darkish your complete night time.
The 2-hour present, wherein creators obtained awards in a number of classes, featured a spread of skits parodying TikTok cultural moments, from Jools Lebron telling the gang to “be demure,” to Rei Ami of Ok-Pop Demon Hunters taking pictures a Labubu cannon into the gang.
“TikTok definitely changed my life,” Lee mentioned in an interview. “I always planned my life around food, so I’m blessed to just turn the camera on and do the same thing.”
The brand new possession of TikTok ought to enable the app to rebound after it misplaced market share amid uncertainty over its future, mentioned Max Willens, an analyst at EMarketer.
“This past year, because a lot of advertisers weren’t really sure whether TikTok was going to stay or go, it did kind of slow the momentum that we had seen on that platform,” Willens mentioned. “We think that moving forward that is going to wind up just being a blip.”
