Six of the nation’s biggest TikTok stars have moved in to a house in London together and are creating viral 15-second videos for their 15million fans.
Launched online last week, The Bytehouse – based in London – has been masterminded by Fanbytes, a talent and production agency.
The stars – Jake Sweet, 22, Shauni Kibby, 19, Lily-Rose Hinton, 20, Katie Franklin, 19, Monty Keates, 17, and Seb Wood, 20 – will film content each day and then answer fans’ questions.
Six of the nation’s biggest TikTok stars have moved in to a house in London together and are creating viral 15-second videos for their 15million fans. Pictured left to right: Katie Franklin, 19, Monty Keates, 17, Seb Wood, 20, Lily-Rose Hinton, 20, Jake Sweet, 22 and Shauni Kibby, 19
All six have shot to internet stardom on the back of the wildly popular TikTok app, which was launched in 2016.
Among other functions, users can live stream, as well as create short clips, music videos and GIFs to share to others on the platform.
Mr Sweet, known as SurfaceLDN on TikTok, is in a relationship with Ms Kibby (Shauni) as are young gay couple Mr Keates (Monty) and Mr Wood (SebbyJohn), while Ms Hinton (Lily Rose) and Ms Franklin (KT Franklin) are exes turned best friends, the Observer reported.
A typical day will see the friends get up at around 10am. They will then create and film content until 7 and from then on will answer live questions from fans.
Launched online last week, The Bytehouse – based in London – has been masterminded by Fanbytes, a talent and production agency. Pictured: Mr Sweet, known as SurfaceLDN on TikTok, is in a relationship with Ms Kibby (Shauni)
The six moved in to the London house in March shortly before the coronavirus lockdown and the idea behind creating the content factory is that viewing figures will explode.
Fanbytes’s 25-year-old founder Timothy Armoo told The Observer: ‘These guys have the potential to be the next Graham Norton or Ant and Dec. [TikTok] is where that next talent will come from.’
He said of the six house mates: ‘Across all six they represent what generation Z are going through, all the questions about identity, sexuality and race.’
Armoo added that the stars have the potential to be the ‘next Graham Norton or Ant and Dec.’
All six have shot to internet stardom on the back of the wildly popular TikTok app, which was launched in 2016. Pictured left and right: Mr Keates (known as Monty on Tik Tok) and Mr Wood (SebbyJohn) are also in a relationship
Mr Wood dropped out of a degree in business marketing and management at the University of Nottingham to pursue his dream of being a ‘social media influencer.’
He has since grown his fan base from 100,000 to three million in less than a year, Nottinghamshire Live reported.
Shauni is notable on TikTok for her comedy, lip-sync, duet, challenge and transition videos.
A manager from Fanbytes lives on the site too to make sure there are no problems.
The blueprint for the house collective was established in the US, generation-Z stars reach millions of fans from Bel Air mansions.
A typical day will see the friends get up at around 10am. They will then create and film content until 7 and from then on will answer live questions from fans. Pictured left and right: Ms Hinton (Lily Rose) and Ms Franklin (KT Franklin) are exes turned best friends
However, TikTok, created in China, previously came under fire from the CEO and co-founder of Reddit, Steve Huffman, who called it ‘fundamentally parasitic’.
He branded the platform ‘spyware’ and urged people not to install it on their phone.
In March, the platform was criticised for allegedly telling its moderators to suppress posts created by people deemed ‘too ugly, poor or disabled for the platform’ in a bid to attract more users.
The Intercept obtained internal documents that state certain videos have been hidden because they show ‘rural poverty, seniors with too many wrinkles, beer bellies and crooked smiles’.
The report suggested the video sharing app was concerned that posts shared by unattractive users could ‘decrease the short-term new retention rate.’
In addition to singling out ‘unattractive users’, the documents also revealed the site was censoring live streams containing political speech that would harm national honor in China – and was banning those who create such content.