This is what the Dutch TikTokers earn

Sometimes you have those moments when you realize that you are no longer 18. I mean, I know that I am not anymore, but sometimes I forget how long it has been. The fact that I said goodbye to my 18th year of life 12 years ago becomes painfully clear to me every time I open the TikTok app. Confronting, because it has also become a bit of my new addiction. A very special addiction by the way, because I find it really so incredibly strange how people behave on it.

Even stranger is that people are making a huge amount of money from it. Take Glen Fontein, who now has 1.3 million followers on TikTok. With that, he is one of the most popular Dutch TikTokers and I find him the most fascinating because I really don't understand why. This 20-year-old guy is hardly wearing a shirt, posts a lot of videos with the standard TikTok dances — which he can't dance at all — and lip-syncs songs — of which he doesn't know the lyrics — with a sultry look. Yes, really? 1.3 million people are into that?

Together with friends, he founded the Vibehouse, and yes: that is indeed quite noticeably stolen from the American Hype House (where the biggest TikTokers belong). Together they ‘live’ in a house, where actually only two people live after Rijk Hofman jumped in and the ‘house’ turned out to just be a small apartment. There he is with Thomas Messina (also known as the guy with the whitest teeth ever), his sister Chantal, the 15-year-old Jade Konal, a guy named Lorenzo, and a set of twins, Quinn and Aaron.

In their videos, they are 9 out of 10 times holding a can of Bang Energy, with the logo facing forward, and then pretending to take a sip. Pretending, yes, because it is always clearly visible that the tab is on the other side and that the can isn't even open. They don't even try to make it come across as believable.

But hey, they don't lose a second of sleep over the fact that their content is purely cringeworthy material and their talent for product placement is non-existent. I wouldn't either, if I were getting such a bank account in return. Because holy shitballs, those Dutch TikTokers earn a lot. Now Glen Fontein has also set up his own management, GL Network, where all those Vibehouse buddies belong to as well. Admittedly: that was a smart move.

Regarding the question of how much money they actually make, they keep their mouths very shut, but Thomas already mentions in a video, in which he reacts to some hate comments (it seems that 80 percent of their comments are hate), that you can laugh at him, but that he really earns a lot with TikTok. Lorenzo has also shared that on his account after he was called ugly or something along those lines.

That there is a lot of money involved, that is something that is certain. In an episode of #BOOS, that same Lorenzo was seen because he was allegedly scammed by his previous management. They would have taken not just a fee of 20 percent but sometimes even 70 percent. This ultimately amounts to 300,000 euros that was lost by Lorenzo alone (because more TikTok creators were victims of this). Holy. Shit.

But just like everything, everything is bigger in America. For example, TikToker Charli D’Amelio earned no less than 4 million dollars between 2019 and 2020, and last year 5 million. A Glen Fontein can only dream of that, of course. Maybe he should improve something in terms of videos. And wear a shirt more often; you would think that with such a salary you could afford some clothes.