This article was written by The Zillennial Zine’s summer editorial intern Emma Zumbo. Find her on Instagram at @emmarzumbo. If you would like to share an article with The Zillennial, send us an email at thezillennialzine@gmail.com.
It’s no secret that the economic reality feels bleak right now. Unemployment has been rising for three consecutive months, after a post-COVID employment boom which saw the unemployment rate fall to the lowest it’s been in 54 years. The statistics are even starker for members of Gen Z: the 20-24 age group is “facing an unemployment rate of 7.9 percent relative to the national average of 4.0 percent”. If you’ve been job hunting lately, you likely know the data doesn’t even begin telling the full story of just how frustrating the labor market is right now, particularly for recent college graduates. Add to that student loans, credit card debt, and a rising cost of living, and it’s not hard to see why so many people are plagued by financial worries.
It’s not surprising then that, like so many other aspects of our lives that have now become virtual, it seems that people have turned to the internet for help in finding an answer to their money woes. On TikTok, the #PayOffMyDebt trend has recently taken off, and it’s nearly impossible to scroll these days without coming across a livestream of someone asking for money through TikTok gifts. Let’s take a look at the TikTok live begging trend, and of what people’s thoughts on it are.
How Are People Asking For Money On TikTok?
There seems to be two main ways in which people are asking for financial help online.
The first, known as #PayOffMyDebt trend, took off after Jake Burgett, a recent PA school graduate, posted a video on May 12 asking viewers for help in paying off his student loans. In the video, Burgett declares that he’s figured out how to game the TikTok Creator Rewards Program in order to earn money even without being an influencer: “I’ve done the math” he says, “and, apparently, in order for TikTok to pay off my student loans in one fell swoop, I would need 247 million people to watch this video for five seconds”. He then proceeds to silently eat cereal in front of the camera in order to make his video a minute long, in an attempt to better fit the apparent preferences of the TikTok algorithm. People followed Burgett’s example in droves, with countless users posting videos asking people to follow them and simply watch to the end in order for them to be paid by the Creator Fund, which requires that accounts “have at least 10K followers with a minimum of 100K views in the last 30 days” in order to be eligible.
The second method through which people are attempting to earn money on TikTok is by using TikTok LIVE and essentially asking viewers to send them Gifts. When enough Gifts are sent to a creator, TikTok will automatically award the creator Diamonds, which can then be cashed in for real money. Initially, it seems that creators were attempting to organically take advantage of LIVE Gifts, by creating content like 24/7 livestreams and hoping that viewers would engage, but lately, more and more lives are appearing in which people directly ask for money from viewers (sometimes even by providing CashApp or Venmo links), usually with an accompanying story of why they need the money.
Does It Work?
If it seems too good to be true to think that someone could pay off six-figure debt with a single minute long video, it’s probably because it is. Although TikTok really does pay people through the Creator Rewards Program and LIVE Gifts, the earnings are usually much lower than video posters hope for. Take Jake Burgett’s case – despite his video earning over 25 million views and his account now having around 230K Followers, Burgett only earned around $4,200 for his cereal eating video. To be clear, like Burgett himself pointed out, that’s still a fairly insane amount of money to make in one minute, but it’s nowhere near enough to pay off his debt. Consider that Burgett’s video was the original one that sparked the trend and that earned far more views that others have since then, and it’s probably fair to assume that most other users making #PayOffMyDebt videos are not exactly raking in cash.
The reality is much the same for LIVE videos. To earn money through lives, viewers must send you Gifts. At the end of your live, TikTok will convert those Gifts into Diamonds, and you can then cash your Diamonds in for real money. The app has seemed hesitant to provide exact monetary values for these items, but the value of a Gift is equivalent to how many TikTok Coins were used to purchase the item. One Coin is worth .5 Diamonds, and, in turn, one Diamond has been estimated to be worth 5 real cents. Meaning that if you receive a Gift that’s worth 100 Coins, you are earning 50 diamonds, which are only worth 2 dollars and 50 cents. Furthermore, TikTok also takes a cut of your payout, which can be anywhere from 50 to 70% of what you earn.
Ultimately, I think it’s safe to assume that, if TikTok has created and encourages these ways for people to make money on their app, it’s because the app itself benefits from it. It’s more likely than not that TikTok is the one earning the real profits from these trends.
What Do People Think?
Unsurprisingly, people’s opinions on these latest money making ventures are split. While some praised the #PayOffMyDebt trend as an example of solidarity and community, celebrating the fact that people were willing to come together to help each other out, others think that people should stick to more traditional paths to put a dent in their loan payments. The response to live content asking for money has been even more fiery: “Y’all, I’m so tired of these TikTok beggars,” proclaims user @champbailie in a video, “It’s time to work”. Many others have echoed her thoughts.
It seems to me that not much harm is done by making these videos, but I think they are indicative of an economic reality that is absolutely unsustainable. While I think most of us are happy to watch a minute long video of nothingness or to spend a few dollars to send someone a virtual Gifts if it means a random stranger who might be in need earns some money from it (even if, like a few instances have shown, their story of why they need might turn out to not be entirely true), I think we have to recognize that, if we have reached a point where people are literally begging for virtual tokens by livestreaming every second of their lives, it might be time that we work to make some actual drastic changes to the system that has gotten us here. I understand people’s frustrations with the live begging videos, but I also don’t think it’s as easy as saying that these video creators should simply find jobs – the data at the onset of this article proves that the labor market is anything but easy right now. Plus, the truth is that even people with full-time employment might be making these types of videos, hoping that the extra cash will help cover costs of living that have become astronomical. While it might be overwhelming to be bombarded with videos of people sharing tragic stories asking you to help them, is it really productive to shame these creators? Perhaps we need to take these trends as call to actions to take a look at the realities that have forced people to resort to these methods in order to get by, and of what we can do to improve that reality.
What’s your take on asking for money on TikTok? Let us know in the comments below!
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