TikTok Looks to Gamify Livestream Engagement With Fan Clubs

TikTok’s trying out another way to boost its livestreaming element, with an updated “Fan Club” option to incentivize viewer engagement.

As you can see in this example, Fan Clubs, which are an updated version of TikTok’s “Creator’s Team,” enable livestreamers in the app to drive community interaction, by essentially gamifying the process.

Live viewers are able to join a creators’ Fan Club by sending a virtual gift during a stream. They’ll then be automatically enrolled as a Fan Club member, meaning that they follow the creator, and will be given a listing of tasks that they can complete to level up within that community.

As explained by TikTok:

“Fan Club levels allow your followers to unlock different perks. As they complete missions to earn fan points and level up, they'll earn rewards and access to exclusive Gifts to send to a creator's LIVE videos.”

Those “missions” currently range from watching livestreams, to commenting and sending gifts.

Yeah, it’s pretty much just engaging with streamers’ content, but that then gives each viewer more points within the group, and they’ll be ranked for such on a leaderboard.

Which, ideally, will drive more engagement:

“To maintain your fan status, you must earn points within 7 days of the creator going LIVE, or it will be automatically paused (we'll send you a reminder if your membership is about to be paused). As a Fan Club member, you can collect rewards for earning points and leveling up. As you move to higher levels in Fan Clubs, you will receive rewards such as access to an exclusive creator chat room, special gifts to be sent during LIVE, member badges that appear next to your username in LIVE, entry lights that highlight your username when participating in LIVE.”

So TikTok’s trying to trick you into becoming the biggest live supporter in the app, by providing a competitive element to commenting and giving gifts in each stream.

Which will probably work. YouTube’s testing similar, with an engagement leaderboard for livestreams, though its version if primarily focused on gaming creators at this stage. And given that the audience for such content is likely into games and competition, adding a means for them to engage in such to show their support makes sense.

TikTok’s aiming for similar, and based on how its Creator’s Team has worked in the past, it can help to drive more engagement. TikTok says that active team members sent 3x as many gifts, and spent 4x longer watching livestreams than the average follower.

So while it may feel like a pretty blatant engagement drive, it does work, and this updated display for livestream fans will boost engagement.

But it’s not available in all regions as yet.

TikTok has been promoting the option on its TikTok LIVE profile in the app, with a focus on Asian region creators. I’ve asked TikTok for more information on availability, but have not had word back at the time of publishing.

Interestingly, TikTok’s also trying out a similar engagement drive for live creators, with some users seeing a new “LIVE Journey” activation in the app:

As you can see in these screenshots (shared by social media researcher Jonah Manzano), this is aimed at incentivizing creators, not fans, in order to get more people streaming in the app.

Which is all part of TikTok’s broader push to boost livestream engagement, with a view to then converting that into in-app sales activity. Livestream commerce is huge in China, and if TikTok can get it right, it can replicate that success in other markets.

It’s clearly making that a focus, and it’ll be interesting to see whether more creators end up going live as a result.   

Bonus: Here’s a (thin) infographic overview of how TikTok Live Fan Club’s work: