TikTok is the place where things happen online.
It’s where young people — and not-so-young people — gather their information, participate in trends, and even shop. It’s where many people go to make money, and where others go to support their ventures. TikTok has found a way to stick its fingers into nearly every pie, and (thus far, at least) it’s working.
Making money on TikTok is becoming the go-to aspiration among many young users, as they see their favorite creators rake in cash through often innocuous videos. The Creator Fund lends at least some financial support to the hardworking minds behind all those viral trends, recipes, and sleuth sessions, but regular TikTok users can also contribute to their favorite users.
This is done through digital gifts, much like Twitch or similar interactive media sites. Users can purchase these digital gifts ahead of time, retain them in their wallets, and when their favorite creators go live they can reward them with some actual monetary kickback. It’s a great way to support the premier talent on the site, and users have a range of gifts to choose from: From the relatively cheap and simple flaming hearts and coffee cups to the pricy lion. TikTokers certainly aren’t at a loss for options, but some of them will break the bank.
Buying a lion on TikTok will cost you
The lion isn’t the most expensive virtual gift TikTok has available, but it’s by no means cheap to buy. Any digital gift, regardless of price, is purchased the same way on TikTok — by using real cash to buy up TikTok’s virtual coin, and trading it for your selection of gifts — but some are far more reasonable than others. Around 100 gifts are available to purchase, with many sporting a relatively low price — from a single coin for the cheapest options to gift boxes, tea, and donuts for a few dozen coins each.
Then there are the pricey options. The lion isn’t TikTok’s most expensive gift available, but it comes close. The priciest digital gift offered by the site is the “TikTok Universe,” which will run users a whopping 44,999 coins, or more than $560. The lion is just a few hundred dollars cheaper, coming in with a price tag of 29,999 coins, or around $400.
$400 is a lot of money to spend on a digital lion that some TikTok user aims to dissolve into real-world currency, but that won’t stop it from earning frequent purchases. Like I said: TikTok is where things happen these days — and those things include young people wasting their cash, just like their parents before them. They’ve just found a new way to do it.