TikTok is stepping up efforts to enhance livestream engagement through a revamped feature called Fan Clubs, aimed at fostering stronger creator-audience relationships via gamified interaction. This move reflects TikTok’s continued investment in livestreaming as it seeks to replicate the success of livestream commerce popularized in China.
The new Fan Clubs allow users to join a creator’s exclusive community by sending a virtual gift during a live broadcast. Membership automatically triggers a set of interactive tasks – like watching, commenting, or gifting – that let fans earn points and unlock higher status levels. These levels come with perks such as access to exclusive chat rooms, badges, and custom gifting options, creating a tiered loyalty system.
“Fan Club levels allow your followers to unlock different perks,” TikTok explained. “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.”
This approach builds on TikTok’s earlier “Creator’s Team” initiative, which reportedly increased livestream engagement significantly. According to the platform, active team members sent three times as many gifts and spent four times as long watching livestreams compared to regular followers.
While the Fan Club feature is currently being promoted primarily among creators in Asia, broader availability remains unclear. At the same time, TikTok is experimenting with a separate LIVE Journey feature that incentivizes creators themselves to stream more frequently – notably the Community Fest event that’s meant to spotlight key creators.
