‘Someone Makes Videos and Gets the Money for It’ - Agency of Older Tiktokers in Digital Capitalism

The capitalist operation of our time has been described in various forms by the literature, such as platform, surveillance, digital capitalism, techno-feudalism or digital colonialism. Although each concept underlines different aspects of the operation, they agree that big tech companies are the biggest winners of the change that determines the operation of the markets and customer behaviour. What opportunities does the individual have in this system? What options are open for those who are, because of their age, not the primary target group of this operation? Is it possible to win on an individual level in this setting?

In this research, we applied the Visual-Verbal Video Analysis Method to analyse the content of older Hungarian TikTokers. Our results showed four ways to utilise the platform. TikTokers can showcase their existing product, service, or brand by appearing in an expert role based on age. On the contrary, the popularity of a personal account can grow so much that it begins to provide income, and even related services and product distribution become profitable. Businesses also discovered the potential in reaching older TikTokers, who become faces of MLM systems, sharing their good experiences about the advertised product. However, some profiles do not belong to individual users: an actress plays the role of an older woman, and the product is barely unperceivable.

What is the role of age in each case? How prominent is the display and stereotyping of age, and what conclusions can we draw? Is the target audience of these videos the older age group, aiming at (creating) the ‘grey market’? Or, on the contrary, do these videos try to appeal to the younger age groups, and by (over)emphasising the grandparental roles, they try to create a bond? And finally, is it worth it for the older TikTokers?