TikTok makes high-profile entry into NFT market with NY Times ad buy

TikTok, an app that is popular for making and sharing short videos, is jumping onto the non-fungible token (NFT) bandwagon. TikTok placed full-slot black-and-white text ads in the New York Times to promote its entry into that market.

Fast facts

• The fast-growing social media platform, which has just surpassed 1 billion monthly users worldwide, announced plans to mint the content of some of its top creators, including Lil Nas X, Grimes, Bella Poarch, Rudy Willingham and Gary Vaynerchuk into NFTs.

• Beginning Oct. 6, the first batch of Lil Nas X’s series will drop and continue until the end of this month.

• The company placed its NFT collection on layer-2 scaling Ethereum solution Immutable X, which stated the NFT platform for transactions using it is “100% carbon neutral.”

• The last sentence of TikTok’s advertisement in the New York Times also seemed to reveal the next step for rewarding creation: “We want to be the platform that continues to find innovative ways to recognize and reward our creators.”
• In July 2020, TikTok ceased operations in Hong Kong after the promulgation of the Hong Kong National Security Law. TikTok had come under scrutiny from the U.S. and other countries because of concerns that it might share user data with Chinese authorities.