Meet the over-40 contingent finding fame on TikTok
Social media phenomenon TikTok isn’t all child’s play — there’s a niche subset of older folk who are finding a following there, too.
It’s fair to say TikTok cops its share of ridicule from those who aren’t the platform’s target demographic. But while the wildly popular app might be internet ground zero for dancing teens, there’s a niche subset of older folk who are finding a following there, too.
TikTok as we know it is an amalgamation of Musical.ly, an app developed in 2014 by entrepreneurs Alex Zhu and Luyu Yang, and the eponymous app first launched in China by Tech Giant ByteDance in 2016. When ByteDance acquired Musical.ly in late 2017 it merged the two platforms, and finally released TikTok as we now know it to the rest of the world in late 2018.
In those four years TikTok has been downloaded two billion times, and amassed an estimated 850 million monthly users. In the first three months of 2020, as the pandemic took hold, TikTok was downloaded 315 million times — making for the best quarter experienced by any app ever.
In an announcement that accompanied TikTok’s August court filing against the U.S. administration’s executive order to ban it there — based on purported security concerns — the app claimed it had 100 million American users (a little under one in three Americans). Its estimates here in Australia are considerably smaller, but still substantial, at around 2.5 million monthly users — just under a tenth of our population.
But despite what some may think, not all of those avid users are teens who spend their waking hours perfecting dance routines to songs most of us don’t even know exist. While around a third of the app’s users (32.5 per cent) are aged 10-19, the 30-and-up contingent is also strong. Those aged in their 30s make up 16.4 per cent, while those aged 40 and up make up one-fifth of all users. Yes, one-fifth of TikTok users were born before Beyonce was.
The platform’s most-followed user, Charli D’Amelio (@charlidamelio), is representative of a large swath of its fanbase: a 16 year old who still lives with her parents and sister Dixie (also a huge TikTok star) in the Connecticut city of Norwalk. Her father Marc is a Republican politician who claims, somewhat Kris Jenner-like, to be “CEO of The D’Amelio Family” on his Twitter account. Between them they spruik beauty brands, Dunkin’ Donuts, and no-fee, no-interest Visa cards.
The rest of TikTok’s “Top 10” (i.e. the 10 most-followed accounts) all have about 40 million followers each. While the numbers on Instagram are considerably higher (Cristiano Ronaldo, the most-followed celebrity on the Facebook-owned app, has almost a quarter of a billion followers), TikTok’s reach and influence can’t be ignored.
Actor and musician Will Smith (now 52, if you’d believe it) hovers somewhere around the 10th most-followed person on TikTok. Having firmly embraced the platform, Smith now regularly uploads funny videos and choreographed dance routines either solo, with other TikTok celebs or his brood, which includes wife Jada Pinkett Smith and their children Jaden and Willow.
Plenty of other celebrities who are old enough for their kids to be embarrassed by their presence regularly perform dances or engage in various “challenges”, such as Reese Witherspoon, Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez, David Beckham, Arnold Schwarzenegger, The Rock, Gordon Ramsay and Tracee Ellis Ross (daughter of Diana Ross). Miley Cyrus is on there, but so is her dad, 59-year-old Billy Ray.
Then there’s TikTok stars like Tabitha Brown (@iamtabithabrown), a motivational speaker famed for her vegan recipes who regularly addresses her 4.5 million followers with a soothing, “hellllo there … I need to talk to you … is that alriiiiight?” Along with a feature in Vanity Fair and a New York Times profile, Brown now has her own merch, including sweatshirts that read: “I can if I want to because it’s my business.”
There’s high school secretary Tammy Ortery (@ramsgirl30), whose dance moves have found fans to the extent of a quarter of a million followers, including Miley Cyrus and boyfriend Cody Simpson. Earlier this year Cyrus and Simpson performed their own version of her choreography in a video that racked up 9 million views in 24 hours. Ortery recently posted a video in front of posters for Biden and Trump with the caption “VOTED!!!!!”, dancing to Chubb Rock’s 1991 song “Treat ‘Em Right”.
The Donald-Trump-impersonating comedian Sarah Cooper (herself 42) made a valid point when she tweeted “Does Trump know that by banning TikTok he’s also pissing off suburban moms” along with a video of Ortery’s. Cooper went viral on social media — aided in part by TikTok — this year for her comical imitations of the US President, and now has her own Netflix comedy special. (Considering she’s likely to be short on material soon, a pivot probably wasn’t a terrible idea.)
Does Trump know that by banning TikTok he’s also pissing off suburban moms pic.twitter.com/4o9hjNM7rN
— Sarah Cooper (@sarahcpr) August 1, 2020
There’s also a niche 70-plus set on the platform. “Old Man Steve” is octogenarian Steve Austin (@omsteve) from Dallas–Fort Worth, Texas, who appears in a different hat and plaid collared shirt each day to address his 1.4 million fans (usually from his kitchen, with his collection of vintage tins on display). He also has his own online store that sells T-shirts reading “I love Old Man Steve”.
We’re not without our third-gen celebrities either. There’s Sydney-based “The Chainz” family (@thechainzfamily), whose videos of their 94-year-old Granny has earnt them close to 93 million likes on the platform. She dresses up, dances, does comedy skits, and even raps along with her grandchildren.
Before her passing in March, 71-year-old Linda Roper took to the platform under the moniker “Grandma YoYo”, building a one-million-strong following sharing updates about her battle with the cancer that eventually claimed her life. She would share updates of her health battles and crocheting tips in equal parts, along with missives to her followers such as “Love u all, TY for your love”.
Roper had told Insider of her decision to sign up to the platform: “[My daughter] Crystal would say ‘mom, maybe you should tell everybody about your journey on Facebook,’ and I said ‘no, I’m not doing Facebook.’ Facebook is out.”