“TikTok is fast paced, it’s funny,” said Brian Salzman, the C.E.O. of RQ Agency, which builds relationships between companies and influencers who do advertisements for them. “For brands, it’s just important to be part of that zeitgeist.”

To that end, more and more companies are hiring teenagers with large TikTok followings as, essentially, brand ambassadors. (Brands are hiring teenagers as consultants, too.) It is important to “not only understand the new and emerging platforms, but understand who is doing it right,” Mr. Salzman said.

There’s the risk, of course, that TikTok may go the way of Vine, or other shuttered social media platforms. But Kyra TV hopes to avoid that fate by investing in talent in ways that make them influential regardless of their platform. The goal, said James Cadwallader, 29, a founder of the company, is to “dominate the world of video, particularly for Gen Z.”

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.nytimes.com