TikTok is finally doing Twitch-like subscriptions, but there’s a catch

TikTok is giving its creators even more opportunities to make money from their content as it’s been revealed that they’re testing paid subscriptions similar to Twitch. 

Over the last two years, TikTok has quickly cemented itself as an avenue to help build a brand-new crop of internet stars that have taken over different social media platforms.

While some of the video-sharing app’s biggest names have benefited through outside opportunities, they have also been chances for them to make money directly on TikTok.

On top of the massive creator fund, TikTok recently rolled out a direct donations option for profiles – building on the live stream gifts that they’d implemented previously. Now, in another big step, they’re working on Twitch-like subscriptions for profiles.

TikTok testing channel subs

As reported by TechCrunch and The Information, TikTok has started supporting the paid subs option with a small testing pool of accounts that you probably won’t be able to find on your For You Page.

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Currently, it is unclear just how the option would work and whether or not creators that use the option would put all of their content behind the subscription paywall.

Using the Twitch example, subscribers get benefits like no adverts and subscriber-only chats, but that wouldn’t really work on TikTok. Twitch streamers can also do subscriber-only streams, which could be one avenue for TikTok to go down – where they’d make some content exclusive to the paywall.

As per the reports, details on when the test might be expanded to users are unclear. Previous tests, like the direct donations, have had criteria that a channel – follow count and video likes, for example – has to match before they’re given access.

That could very well, again, be the case for subscriptions, but for now, it is a case of wait and see what happens.