TikTok money: The stars we know because of the app

With fears of TikTok being banned in the United States, the app’s content creators are starting to wonder if they’re going to be able to mobilize their fans to other platforms. If not, they might have to wave goodbye to their internet fame.

Users of TikTok are also worried because the app has become a haven for young people. Not only is it a place for lip-synching & dancing, it’s a place where people share information, coordinate activism, and learn how to do things like cook.

There are plenty of questions swirling about the safety of using TikTok, but people (both users and creators) who have had the app for years are more concerned about losing their favorite platform. Here are all the people who have skyrocketed to fame & fortune thanks to TikTok.

Charli & Dixie D’Amelio

Charli and Dixie D’Amelio comprise two of the top three highest earners on TikTok – according to Forbes. The two teenagers have moved to Los Angeles since finding fame on the app. They both have their own accounts where they post videos of themselves dancing, but frequently appear in one another’s videos.

Dixie has forged ahead with a budding music career, her first single has over 58 million streams and beat out a Kanye West & Travis Scott music video for the top spot on YouTube’s trending page.

Charli has opened for the Jonas Brothers with Bebe Rexha for one of their concerts last year at the invitation of Rexha herself, and has even shown up in a Super Bowl commercial. Both sisters have multiple sponsorship deals.

Addison Rae

Addison Rae was a newbie college student who decided to use TikTok as a way to keep dancing after growing up in competitive dance. However, it wasn’t long before people on the LSU campus were shouting her name as she walked by – people she’d never met recognized her.

Rae dropped out of college after her first semester and headed to Los Angeles to expand upon her new-found fame.

She now has a podcast, multiple sponsorship deals, and her own makeup line. Rae seems to have diversified her audience enough that the loss of TikTok might not have to send her packing her bags for LSU again.

Josh Richards

Richards is quoted as saying, “It’s about creating companies or getting equity in companies. Influencers need to learn how to properly monetize.” With a business mind like this we already have confidence Richards will manage if TikTok is banned.

Josh Richards is considered TikTok’s “heartthrob” and “bad boy”. He rose to fame on TikTok, but also posts to YouTube. Not to mention he started his own talent management company, a drink business, and joined up with a star-up called Triller a hopeful rival to TikTok.

Richards has capitalized on his TikTok fame in a very calculated and sensible way, so while he may be one of TikTok’s biggest names, we know we’ll continue to hear about him for years long after the app ceases to exist.

Michael Le

Le also enjoys making dance videos for TikTok. He seems to have a thoughtful approach to his work saying he wants to, “make every video be a skit, be something that’s more than just putting your phone down.”

Le created one of (now) many TikTok “collectives” where TikTokers work together to build their brands and create content.

However, if TikTok really is banned in the U.S. before the end of this year, he’ll have to learn how to pivot this group into something else.

Loren Gray

Gray is a singer and currently has eight singles. She is determined to be her own advocate after working with talent managers who she says ruined some early sponsorship deals for her and were just “bad”.

Gray got a record deal with Virgin Records in 2018 and has built a massive TikTok fanbase, so her mentality of only Loren Gray knowing how to “brand and be Loren Gray” seems to be working out for her.