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At the TikTok Spotlight event held yesterday, the app unveiled an innovative advertising tool designed to transform user-generated content into promotional material for brands. This new feature enables companies to convert existing user videos that feature their products into advertisements.
In an exciting twist, TikTok users, regardless of whether they command a following of a million or just a thousand, are set to receive compensation for their contributions. This initiative offers individuals not only a platform to showcase their creativity but also a chance to earn rewards for their content creation.
In a statement to nine.com.au, Amy Bradshaw, who serves as TikTok’s General Manager of Global Business Solutions for Australia and New Zealand, emphasized the benefits of this development: “This is giving people an opportunity to not just create content … but also be rewarded.”
Once users sign up as creators on TikTok One, they open the door for direct engagement with brands interested in using their videos for advertising campaigns. Furthermore, creators can actively participate by responding to brand requests for specific content, facilitating a direct collaboration between users and advertisers.
Users can also respond directly to call-outs from brands for specific content.
The best part, Bradshaw said, is that you don’t need to be an influencer with millions of followers to get involved.
“It’s not about how popular you are as a creator, it’s how interesting and unique your content is,” she said.
“So it really democratises the creator landscape.”
TikTok users must meet eligibility criteria to join TikTok One, like being 18 or older.
TikTok users who don’t want to have their videos turned into ads need not worry.
Users must opt-in to the program and agree to let a brand use their content before it can be pushed as a paid advertisement.
“You get to choose which brands [you work with], you can accept or decline if they want to use your ads,” Bradshaw said.
“It’s just another opportunity to create revenue stream.
“You’re creating the content anyway, so you can be rewarded for that.”
Like with any new feature, there will be teething issues.
Earlier this week Australian influencer Cheree (@chereeanne on TikTok) was shocked to see one of her videos was being used by Merit Beauty with the ‘paid partnership’ tag.
Cheree made a video expressing her shock and frustration at not being paid for the ad.
In a follow-up, she said her video had been picked up through TikTok One.
She said she must have signed up without realising or been added to the program due to her follower count, but that she had since removed herself from the program.
Cheree declined to comment for this article.
Bradshaw couldn’t comment on Cheree’s experience but said steps are taken to prevent situations like hers.
“There may be teething problems,” she said, but added that TikTok strives to “make sure we’re being measured with how we’re rolling out new products”.
Other new advertising tools announced at yesterday’s event included Prime Time, which lets brands push up to three sequential video ads to users in a 15 minute window.
But Bradshaw promised users won’t be bombarded by extra ads “no matter how many advertisers” come onto the platform.
And there are a lot of them.
More than 350,000 Australian businesses already use TikTok, including major success stories like HiSmile.
Launched in 2014 with just $20,000 in capital, it has become a global empire due in no small part to advertising on TikTok and its presence on TikTok Shop in the UK and US.
TikTok Shop allows users to buy products directly within the app and lets creators earn commission by promoting specific brands or items.
HiSmile has made more than $2.6 million in sales on TikTok Shop in the first few months of 2026 alone – but none of those purchases came from Australia.
Despite TikTok Shop’s popularity among brands and consumers, TikTok has yet to roll out the feature to its more than 10 million Australian users.
So when will Australia finally get access?
”It’s the question I get in every meeting,” Bradshaw confessed, but said there’s no launch date set for TikTok Shop Australia.
There’s no “hidden reason” why the feature hasn’t been rolled out in Australia yet, but Bradshaw said that it will come – eventually.
“There’s a roadmap, we’re opening new markets all the time [and] Australia is not on the immediate roadmap, but we will get there.”
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