Reddit recently announced its first major acquisition with purchase of Dubsmash, a TikTok-like social media site where users upload short-form videos. While the terms of the deal were not disclosed, Dubsmash recently raised $20.2 million from investors including Heartcore Capital, Lowercase Capital, Sunstone Life and Index Ventures among others.

From what has been publicly revealed about the deal, Dubsmash will continue to operate as a separate platform. The driver for the purchase is to integrate Dubsmash's video creation tools into Reddit which, while it has supported video uploads since 2017, has limited video editing tools with the videos posted on the site often hosted elsewhere.

All About Dubsmash

Dubsmash was launched in 2015 as a video app where users could lip-sync to popular music. It struggled in the first few years of its existence but in 2007 it pivoted to become a full social media platform and moved its operations from Berlin to Brooklyn. Since then it has seen increased popularity and now has the largest share of the US short-form video market aside from the leader TikTok, based on app installs. Reportedly Dubsmash also held talks with Facebook and Snap about a possible acquisition before the Reddit deal was inked.

About Reddit

Reddit was founded in 2005 in San Francisco and bought by Conde Nast the following year. In 2011 it was sold, though the parent company of Conde Nast, Advance Publications, retains a stake. Last year it raised some $300m in funding from range of investors, including Sequoia Capital and Andrew Horowitz, valuing it at over $3 billion. The company has 700 employees compared to Dubsmash's 12.

One of the distinguishing features of Dubsmash is that it has a large user base of Black and Latinx users who are credited as the main reason for the site's success. TikTok's highest profile stars are white and the New York times published an article earlier this year claiming dance moves by Black creators on the site were often appropriated by TikTok users without giving credit to the original creators which meant that they missed out on larger followings and brand deals as a result. Reddit said in a statement that it regarded the purchase of the company as a part of a greater effort on its part to be more inclusive - the company has faced criticism in the past for racism after allowing hate-speech to be hosted on the site.

Although first released in China for the Chinese market in 2016 as Douyin, TikTok quickly became a platform for entertainment around the world. By the end of 2020, it has launched the careers of thousands of personalities, many of whom are using the platform as a means to earn a living. In less than 36 months, TikToks millionaires have made some serious cash and are still doing so. Here are 7 of its top earners.

1. Spencer X

Earnings: $1.2 million
Spencer Polanco Knight, better known as Spencer X, initially promoted his beatboxing skills through YouTube, later combining his YT earnings with sponsorships to become a TikTok millionaire by the age of 28. After dropping out of college, Spencer X started his beatboxing career busking, and was even part of a bluegrass group. His popularity as a beatbox artist grew when he began posting on YouTube and on TikTok in 2019.

2. Michael Le

Earnings: $1.2 million

Michael Le, better known as JustMaiko was one of the pioneer content creators on Tik Tok, back when it was known as Musical.ly. Le is a dancer and choreographer who offers multiple posts on his Tik Tok account daily for his nearly 5 million followers. Other than creating dance and challenge videos, Le also earns through paid partnerships using Instagram and merchandise sales with his Shluv clothing line.

3. Josh Richards

Earnings: $2.5 million

Josh Richards is a Canadian Tik Tok star who is also currently the highest-paid male content creator on the platform. Richards provides content on Tik Tok, YouTube, and Instagram where he posts video clips of his performances. He co-founded Ani Energy and TalentX Entertainment and is the Chief Strategy Officer of Triller. He has accumulated north of 20 million followers on the TikTok application.

4. Loren Gray

Earnings: $4 million

Loren Gray is another Tik Tok pioneer - that is, she was on the platform back when it was known as Musical.ly. She started posting when she was just a 6th grader. These days, Gray is focused on her music career which she began promoting by creating content and building her TikTok followers. By the middle of 2020, she had nearly 50 million followers on the platform.

When is the TikTok Ban Deadline?

Several days have gone by since November 12, the date popular Chinese-owned social media app, TikTok was supposed to be banned in the United States. Not only did this ban not happen, but the fuzz that came with it also faded away after tense months of trying to guess what was going to happen. Last week, it was reported that because Trump is contesting the results of the Election, TikTok feels as if his administration has its hands full with the legal drama surrounding it, therefore, simply forgetting to come through with the ban. That aside, TikTokers have filed a couple of injunctions that are helping to stall the app's ban.

On November 13, which also happened to the Friday the 13th, the Commerce Department's order to effectively bar TikTok in the United States was blocked by a US district court. If that executive order had not been blocked by Judge Wendy Beetlestone, the ban on ByteDance-owned TikTok would have taken effect on November 12 barring the app from being used in the country.

The Commerce Department reacted to these injunction by saying it would comply with it but it plans to defend the executive order and the efforts to implement it from legal challenges.

When giving her ruling, Judge Wendy encouraged the Commerce Department not to bar TikTok from providing their content delivery services, or hosting their data in the US.

TikTok's troubles started when Trump's administration made claims that it poses concerns to the national security of the United States because the app collects personal data on 100 million Americans who use it. The administration went on to claim that the Chinese government could easily obtain this data from ByteDance, putting the US at risk, allegations that TikTok denies.

Will the Tiktok Ban Happen?

For now, there is no clear indication on whether or not the ban will take effect in the future.

US District Judge Carl Nichols, who on September 27 issued a preliminary injunction that stopped the removal of TikTok from Alphabet Inc's Google Play Store and Apple Inc's App Store will on November 18 hold a hearing on the other aspects of the executive order blocked by Judge Beetlestone. So let's wait and see.

According to Business Insider, a sponsored post on TikTok can make an average of $0.01 to $0.02 per view. Loren Gray, a famous TikTok user, earned $2.6 million in 2019 for creating sponsored posts. Companies are paying TikTok influencers between $200 and $20,000 per branded video promoted.

If you have thousands of TikTok followers, you should consider monetizing your account. You might want to know how to monetize your TikTok account. The following tips will help.

1. Influencer Marketing

In influencer marketing, you use your TikTok videos to promote brands/products/services. You endorse products in your videos with the hope of generating sales.

The highest TikTok earners engage in influencer marketing and some of them earn six figures. To succeed in influencer marketing, you need to have an engaged user base. You can only influence people to make purchasing decisions if you can engage them.

The TikTok influencer calculator will help you to estimate your possible influencer earnings based on your number of followers and engagement.

2. Publishing Sponsored Posts

You can earn money by publishing promotional videos of brands in your account. With an average earning of $0.01 to $0.02 per sponsored view, a video of 100,000 views will earn $1000 in sponsorships.

If you have a following on TikTok, you should consider reaching out to brands and informing them how you can market their products using sponsored posts.

3. Selling Your Products

This is the easiest way to monetize your TikTok account if you don't have a huge following. You can use TikTok to promote products that you are already selling elsewhere.

TikTok offers you a free platform to sell your products or services. If for example, you own a river rafting service, you can take 15-second clips of raft trips and post them on TikTok.

Police in Lake Mary in Florida have taken the unusual step of asking TikTok users to stop stealing campaign signs in response to a challenge issued on the social media site. While sign stealing and removal (on both sides of politics) is not unusual in an election year, this time the police are sheeting the blame for an increase in sign stealing to the social media app TikTok.

An officer with the Florida police has said that over 6.8 million people have viewed TikTok videos online that challenge viewers to remove campaign signs and pointed out that this is in fact a crime. They discovered the trend after interviewing a suspect who told them that there was a challenge encouraging people to steal Trump campaign signs in their local neighborhood. They were also encouraged to steal as many signs as possible and to record a video of the activity according to the suspect.

Apparently at least 24 Trump campaign signs and a Trump flag have been stolen to date in the Lake Mary area and police are appealing to teenagers not to participate in this type of activity since it is a crime to take other people's property and could result in a maximum 6 month jail term for serious offenders. While theft and vandalism laws vary between states, most states treat stealing political signs as a misdemeanor which will only result in a fine rather than jail time. Similar to a speeding ticket, such fines are likely to range from $50 to $500 dollars.

While a specific name for the challenge hasn't been found, videos of people poking fun at the activity of stealing the signs are readily available on the app and no videos actually identify a person committing the act of stealing campaign material from someone else's property. Some posts contain videos showing the signs they have stolen and include captions that threaten to steal the neighbor's signs again if they replace them. Others state that the contents of posts are in jest or 'just a metaphor'.

TikTok is one of the most popular social media platforms out today. From trending dances to sketch comedies, social media influencers are really finding creative ways to make great content, brand themselves, and earn livable salaries. Still, the social media platform has not been without its challenges and controversy.

What Is TikTok and Why Is TikTok US In the Throes of Political Discourse

TikTok, in many ways, is like the popular Vine app we had a few years ago. Like Vine, TikTok is a video social media app where 'real short videos' take center-stage. The short-form video app has been the source of viral dances that have taken pop songs up the Billboard charts, as well as spearheaded viral political activism and satirical content. It is the virality of its content that has added to the app's popularity and rapid rise within the pop culture digital dynamic.

All things considered (including the shareability of its content to just about every other popular social media platform), all is good and well in the world of TikTok. Well, except for its owner, that is. The TikTok app is owned by Chinese company ByteDance. The concern is that user data can be handed over to the Chinese government if so required. The owners of TikTok has pointed to the fact that they are against such practices and would not hand over user data at the request of the Chinese or any other government. Still, the United States (US) government considers the app to be a national security threat and commands that the app owner meet the outlined requirements of risk being banned in the US.

The Ultimatum: The Only Solution the Trump Administration Will Accept

Even with the best efforts of the owners of TikTok to reassure the US government and other critics that the app does not use spy technologies nor is it a threat to national security, the Trump administration has laid down the gauntlet. The ultimatum is simply this, be banned in the US or be owned by a US company with user data being held and controlled on US soil - far from access by foreign governments and espionage. With the option to be US-owned, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

If you are a fan of Instagram then you already know you can find goods and services via this social networking website. Many business owners advertise their products here and they have excellent reasons to do this. With over 500 million visitors daily, Instagram has the potential to bring serious business to your site. It gets even better. According to reliable statistics, over 130 million Instagram users engage with shopping posts. These are some big numbers right there.

In the past, Instagram users had to leave the site then log on to the seller's website in order to buy goods and services online. Now, this is an inconvenience and a waste of valuable time. The good news is that customers can now buy goods and services directly from Instagram without leaving the site or navigating to the seller's website. BigCommerce has teamed up with Facebook to unlock checkout on Instagram. In simple English, this means that if you are just looking at Instagram pages and you see any product you like, you can buy it immediately without having to log out of Instagram and log on to the seller's website. Below are three advantages of this innovative development.

Meet Customers Where They Are

One of the best things about shopping online is that the seller offers goods and services to the customers in real time. You do not have to commute to some offline shop somewhere and waste valuable time in traffic. Now, checkout on Instagram offers online shoppers instant availability of products. For the 130 million shoppers on Instagram, this feature means that the seller meets the customer where they are. In effect, you have a safe, fast and convenient shopping alternative right here on Instagram.

Simple and Secure Platform

This innovation creates a wonderful social media shopping experience for Instagram users. You probably had some favorite products already but you could not access these products directly in the past. Now, BigCommerce has just given you the opportunity to shop for all your favorite brands directly from your Instagram page. You can even store payment credentials and make future purchases seamlessly on Instagram. This gives you fast, secure and simple transactions all the time. 

TikTok has rapidly gained popularity as a social networking app, especially among the young generation. As of 2020, the app has more than 500 million active users and was the most downloaded social media app in January. The number of users keeps rising steadily each day.

Just like in other social media platforms, Influencers are now making brand endorsements and earning good money from TikTok.

How Much Do Influencers Earn?

Generally, influencers earn between 200$ - 20,000$ per post depending on several factors such as product niche, audience country and brand affinity and engagement rate of the post.

Unfortunately, TikTok does not offer native ads options like its competitors. Settling on the advertising rate to pay influencers is, therefore, tricky for brands. It is usually a matter of negotiation with the influencer. Previously, a large following was deemed to translate to higher pay for influencers. However, the focus is now changing.

Brands have come to understand that a large following on social media can be bought. It is, therefore, not a decisive factor in deciding how much to pay influencers. Brands have now established that post social engagement is vital for a successful marketing campaign. These interactions between influencers and followers reveal the number of people interested in the brand or product.

Influencer Engagement and Earnings Calculator

As an influencer, knowing this social engagement rate gives you a clue of your account's value on the market. We understand this concern. Our Influencer Engagement and Earnings calculator will sort you out. It helps you understand your potential value as an influencer by approximating your TikTok's account social engagement rate.

The tiktok money calculator igface uses three factors to determine engagement rate; the number of likes, number of comments, and the number of followers. To decide on your social engagement rate, use the following formula;

(number of likes + number of comments/number of followers) × 100

The higher your engagement rate, the higher the chances of brands considering you for marketing deals.

Influencers must understand that this calculator is only for educational purposes and is in no way a tool by Tik Tok. It is just an opinion based on the popular view.

How to Make Money on TikTok in 2020

The net is full of fraudulent software, including PC Health Boost, which claim to boost the performance of your PC by removing errors in its registry. For the uninitiated, PC Health Boost is a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Program) that does not deliver what it claims. On the contrary, it provides users with exaggerated and modified system scan results to fool them into paying money for the unnecessary system fix. It does not matter if this software sneaked into your computer through installation of software bundles or whether you installed it intentionally. The trial version of this software begins scanning your computer as soon as you install it, and displays a lot of pop-up notification that identifies allegedly PC problems. It displays a message that impel you to get rid of or fix the following items:
• Errors related to ActiveX and COM controls
• Expired cache files
• Damaged DLLs, and
• Potentially dangerous entries

The catch with PC Health Boost

The trial version of the software just shows you the errors. You have to purchase a license key and register the application with it to fix the errors. Although the vendors promise that this software eliminates outdated registry entries from your computer's hard disk drive, it might be able to delete scores of legitimate registry files. It also steals data such as credit card details, bank account information, tax return, user ID and password from your computer and forward them to hackers. Therefore, you should remove this program from your computer immediately.

How to remove PC Health Boost from your computer

Running a standard anti-spyware removal tool is of no help since the powerful destructive feature of PC Health Boost effortlessly manages to bypass such tools. In such a scenario you can try to uninstall the software by following the steps mentioned below:
• Click on "Start" button
• Navigate to the Windows control panel
• Launch add/remove programs
• Select PC Health Boost and click to uninstall it

SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for bikini bottom is a video game that's based on Nickelodeon's favorite deep-sea sponge, SpongeBob SquarePants. It became a hit in 2003 and it was developed by Heavy Iron Studios. This game was a hit to all SpongeBob fans out there! I mean, who wouldn't want to be SpongeBob, right? Not unless you're Squidward. The game got a lot of positive reviews over the course of its release and it managed to gather a lot of fans all around the world. With a lot of success surrounding the game, Heavy Iron Studios showed an interest in creating a sequel or doing a remake for the game. A lot of fans became excited with this idea that they waited for a total of 17 years. At long last, every prayer of every SpongeBob fan has been heard. In June 2019, Purple Lamp Studios was present in a gaming convention called E3, where they announced that they'll be handling the remake of our favorite sponge ever! A year after its announcement. Purple Lamp studios finally released - Battle for Bikini Bottom: Rehydrated! For 17 years we waited, and finally it has been given! It's now available in Xbox one, Play station 4, Nintendo switch and sometime in 2020, for PC!

Upgraded Features of Battle of Bikini Bottom Rehydrated

It's still the game that we knew and loved, but it has a lot of upgraded features that you will surely notice! First of all, the graphics of the game is outstanding! If your console supports 4k resolutions, then this game will be so beautiful to the eye, it's so unreal! I mean what do you expect? It's run by Unreal engine that revamps the graphics of the old classic!

Rehydrated Story Line

The story line is similar, you are going to play the lovable sponge of bikini bottom - SpongeBob SquarePants, you will be saving Bikini Bottom from a horde of robots named as Duplicatotron 3000 that's controlled by the evil genius, Chum bucket owner, Plankton. The game has new character models compared to the last one, and apparently sliding on your tongue is much better than sledding! One of the most fun thing about this game, is that in every boss battle, the announcer fish is there to shout cast everything about that battle. It's pretty funny and entertaining!

SpongeBob: Battle for Bikini Bottom Rehydrated - THIS GAME IS HILARIOUS! - Part 1