Michelle Melody knows how to market. She is an influencer - or, as a Swiss tabloid writes: "Selfie-Queen". She became known to a wider audience through the SRF documentary "Generation Selfie". At the age of 16 she had her lips sprayed because she was emulating her Instagram idols - in front of the camera and partly with a smartphone in her hand. The intervention was free of charge for Melody, it was said in the film: The student make it on their social media channels advertising for the beauty clinic.
To date, Melody, now 17, is interested in deals - even those directly with their fans. And on TikTok, the currently most popular video platform among young people. There, Melody has a good 470,000 followers.
"I'm back with 100 pandas ," she explains in one of her TikTok livestreams, before moving on to the song "Gangsta's Paradise" with a hairbrush as an accessory. "At a concert I go back, I'm very rich , there's a duet, Drama Queen gives you my mobile number, two drama queens give you my bio, and five you have a wish."
Influencer price lists such as these encounter TikTok users more often: sometimes directly in live streams, sometimes in their descriptions. The app of the Chinese company ByteDance is primarily about short videos of up to 15 or 60 seconds in length. There is also a livestreaming section where users can make streamers virtual gifts. Sometimes, within a few minutes, gifts with a purchase price of several hundred euros are sent - sometimes even by individual users.
50 euros for attention and a figurine
Unlocked the gifts with so-called TikTok coins, a currency within the app, for which you spend real money. One coin equals one cent. The so-called Drama Queen is therefore the most valuable gift. If you want to send them to a streamer you have to spend 50 Euro - lots of money for a few seconds. Attention in the form of an animated figurine that will be visible to other users in the middle of the stream. Meanwhile, a panda costs users about five cents, a concert five euros, an "I'm very rich" ten euros.
TikTok
The eight TikTok gifts: One coin is about one cent
The recipients thank in different ways. Sometimes joint videos or phone numbers are offered for sale, in most cases mentioning the pseudonyms of donating users or written on boards, T-shirts or walls - with the invitation to others to follow these patrons.
Asked by the Spiegel whether she has a good feeling when chasing down her deal offers, or whether she finds this funny, Michelle Melody replies: "I have a good feeling, that's what all influencers do."
Fan name on walls and cheeks
Some offers are even stranger than those of Melody. "Guys, I have a name on my cheek because someone sent 'a Drama Queen," says a 17-year-old TikToker with almost 300,000 followers, the pseudonym of a user in the face, on a December night. "And I'll write anyone who sends a drama queen here on my cheek."
The apparently young user is called "Ehrenfrau" - and he has, after he has already thanked her for seven drama Queens, an offer. "If you want to get up there," says the streamer and shows a white area on the window front of the room. "So big from the side to the side, you have to send 19 drama queens in any case, then you'll definitely be up there, man - really big." 19 drama Queens, that would be equivalent to spending 950 euros - in addition to the previous drama Queens.
Three skilful drama Queens later the streamer also speaks to the user again. She now only has to send 16 drama queens, he says. "Hey, only 16, man, from 26."
"Hey guys, should I buy food for poor children?"
TikTok video makers report that streamer receive a payable balance worth about 25 euros per received drama queen. This credit is in the form of so-called diamonds, another TikTok currency. Accordingly, the remaining money remains with TikTok or probably goes to a part of Google or Apple, through whose stores users buy the coins.
The livestream stores are a niche on TikTok, the main focus of the app are short videos. But the streams are financially attractive - for the company, but also for the streamers. They do not even need a lot of viewers when they have a few who give them a lot - for whatever.
"So all the money, what I get in this stream, is not everything to me," says the 17-year-old at some point in his transmission. "I just decided to do it now, so I decided to do that to poor ..." At that moment, he sees a new drama queen, "Oh my god, oh my, god." Then he hides a crumpled T-shirt against his forehead and calls the donor "Ehrenmann": "Or honorary woman, I do not know right now."
Elsewhere, the streamer asks, "Hey folks, should I buy some food for poor kids tomorrow, not tomorrow, but Friday anyway."
A screenshot for eternity
A popularity level higher is all louder and faster. One of the most popular TikTok streamers is Spencer X, a young man from the US who makes Beatbox videos and whose channel is followed by nearly 12 million users. In one of Spencer X's transcriptions, a single user who sounds like a kid in his own clips sends him 30 drama queens. Purchase price that is around 1500 euros.
Spencer X conjures in his videos the cohesion of an alleged "Team X", but one could also say: He heats his donor army and beatboxt a bit. Users who send valuable gifts to Spencer X write on boards in the video background where they are hard to decipher.
TikTok
For generous donors: name wall in a stream of Spencer X.
And like the German-speaking 17-year-old, Spencer X does not hold back with incentives for his viewers to spend even more money. Once, when another young-looking user has already sent him a dozen drama queens, he promises in front of 20,000 live viewers to immortalize the next drama queen giver in a screenshot he'll share "for the rest of his life". Shortly thereafter, six new drama queens arrive from that user. On a SPIEGEL request Spencer X did not respond.
The TikTok livestreams are especially bizarre in that many only turn around one thing: the celebration, but also the encouragement of the donors. For names in the video background. To the question who likens who for what. In between, greetings are still distributed in most user transmissions, questions answered by fans or simplex chat games played - or it is sometimes made a little music, as Spencer X. Original but it is rare.
A meeting is also promised to the unknown donors
Questionable donations are also available on other platforms. At TikTok, however, it is still significant that the app has comparatively many underage users. And: Officially, TikTok is 13 years, but the platform has - you can hear that from video makers - even users who are even younger.
In general, many gift deals are seriously interesting, especially for children and adolescents: "If you send in a drama queen, you'll get my number," says the 17-year-old streamer once. "We'll get in touch, Internet Best Friends and so on, meet us someday."
Tobias Schmid, director of the North Rhine-Westphalia state media, says about such scenes, that it is questionable to put children and adolescents under emotional pressure: "The aggravating factor is that this is apparently happening in order to earn money with the feelings of children An unacceptable practice if you ask me. "
Also with regard to the legal situation, Schmid expresses concerns: "Streams of this kind are subject to the imprint obligation as well as the prohibition to address children and adolescents with chaplains," he tells SPIEGEL. "Above all else, the credulity of children and adolescents should not be exploited - and certainly not in conjunction with emotional pressure - anyone who violates this will sooner or later receive mail from us or perhaps one of our sister authorities in the other federal states."
TikTok himself seems to have realized over time that the current livestreaming and gift system has its pitfalls. From December 20, new rules will apply. In the future, it will only be possible for users over the age of 18 to send or receive gifts. So far, users can purchase under 18 coins - with "prior consent of the parents," it says.
"Although the feature has been overwhelmingly positive, we know we have a responsibility to improve our anti-abuse features and policies," TikTok said in a blog post. Introduce new age restrictions "to see that the gift function continues to be used appropriately and respectfully."
The new criteria are at the discretion of the company
According to information from several TikTok streamers video makers have so far no way to omit the gifts function in their transmissions on request - such as to simply stream without visual distraction or rip-off allegations in the chat. Anyone who goes live can get pandas or drama queens at any time, even without quotes offered. TikTok wants it that way.
The 17-year-old says on SPIEGEL demand: "Of course, the gift function should always be on when streaming. How else to generate donations?" When asked if the users' gifts are not a bit expensive for a little bit of internet humor, he answers that he thinks that "every human should decide how and what he does or gives".
It will be interesting to see who at TikTok will be able to go live in any form from December 20th. So far, the feature was usually open to anyone with 1000 or more followers, Streamer reports. In its new gift policy, however, TikTok now emphasizes that in the future only "selected users" who are at least 16 years old will be able to start a transmission. It also needed to meet certain criteria, which included "a certain number of followers and / or experience in creating quality content". The criteria, it is also said, are at the discretion of the company.
By the way: One of our test accounts - until then with a meager seven followers somewhere in the irrelevance on the way - has gained in the course of this research a prominent follower. The account has been followed for almost four weeks by Lauren Godwin, a TikTok star with 17 million fans. Your click could be bought - for a concert, so for five euros.
