![]() That’s why brands with global audiences, like Hugo Boss and Binance, have written fat checks to guest star in Lame’s videos. Where D’Amelio’s appeal is largely confined to English speakers, Lame’s wordless comedy content is accessible to anyone in reach of TikTok. In June of 2022, he surpassed Charli D’Amelio to become the most-followed TikToker in the world. In videos of him wordlessly doing things like flipping a pot lid for storage space (responding to a life hack video), the unemployed Italian began to garner 1 million followers per day. It was strictly a coping mechanism until he started posting silent videos of overly complicated life hacks later in 2020. Bored, he took to TikTok, sharing dances and e-sports gameplay, and speaking in Italian. He attended high school and worked as a factory machine laborer until he was laid off at the onset of the pandemic. Lame emigrated from Dakar, Senegal, to the Turin suburb of Chivasso, Italy, with his three siblings and parents as an infant in 2001. “That’s when we start to more meaningfully discuss ways for them to get into deeper relationships with companies or around companies they want to start.” “Most influencers get to a certain point in their career where they’ve endorsed and supported a number of brands and have a flat fee for these structures, but they start to want a bit more incentive or upside from those relationships,” says Raina Penchansky, CEO and cofounder of influencer management company Digital Brand Architects, which manages 180 creators. Opting out of fame’s usual accoutrements like sports cars and yachts, Lame is investing in real estate, as well as restaurant and software companies. He has also cofounded a creative agency, Iron Corporation, with Riggio to oversee athletes’, actors’ and fellow creators’ social presences and monetization plays. On average, brands pay Lame about $400,000 per TikTok, according to Riggio (an agency source pegs the number closer to $350,000). Like many professional TikTokers, Lame derives the majority of his income from endorsement deals. Lame interrupts: “I like making people laugh. “It’s all about being as viral and visible as possible based on what users are clicking on.” “With TikTok fame-what makes it stand out compared to other forms of fame-is that it can be very fleeting,” says Melanie Kennedy, director of education at the University of Leicester, who has authored multiple studies on visibility and TikTok. In truth, because these all-star TikTokers morphed from nobodies to household obsessions in about two years alongside the meteoric growth of the Chinese social app, there is no precedent for long-term success. ![]() Or Josh Richards who has transformed his TikTok teen heartthrob status into a major Amazon Video deal, VC fund, and podcast, among other initiatives. Take Charli and Dixie D’Amelio who have made $70 million in about two years, and just became venture-backed humans as they launch their $100 million (valuation) D’Amelio Brands to exert ownership of D’Amelio everything. Other top creators are trying to parlay virality into a long-term business with strategies aimed at growing their net worth. Meanwhile, Lame hopes his next big move is not starring in a big-brand ad campaign, but in a cinema blockbuster. ![]() Brands grovel to pay Lame low- to high-six-figures-swamping Riggio’s inbox-as companies hunger to mooch off Lame’s clout. Lame’s career exemplifies the simultaneous nascency and power of top TikTokers. “My dream is that one day we’ll win an Oscar,” says Lame in his fresh English to Fortune. In addition to working with a tutor for an hour every morning, Lame is bingeing American cartoons and movies. When it comes to his methods for studying English, it seems Lame is living in his own sort of life hack. He attracted another 136 million from wordlessly self-immolating as a result of his cologne usage on Valentine’s Day. A recent video Lame posted of himself playing a 19th-century court jester auditioning for a 50 Cent video-where the only sound was vague fiddling to “In Da Club”-garnered 95 million views. ![]() ![]() Though his universal hilarity stems in part from the silence he maintains in his short-form slapstick videos, he believes he needs to learn English. The Senegalese immigrant with 2.4 billion TikTok likes is determined to become the best comedian in the world. One would expect a former manual laborer who went from government housing to commanding up to $750,000 per TikTok post-and on track to make $10 million this year, according to Riggio-to be a fixture of Milan’s bottle service bastions or Michelin-starred pasta palaces. ![]()
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