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.

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.