The business behind TikTok livestreaming
For many Filipinos dreaming of making it online, the traditional route has often pointed toward Manila.
But from Cagayan de Oro, a cohort of singers, dancers and natural conversationalists is testing whether a smartphone, a stable audience and several hours of livestreaming can offer another way in.
For Studio Zone, a TikTok LIVE creator network based in Cagayan de Oro, the experiment has already produced at least one striking case: a grade school teacher who left her job after finding that livestreaming could support her financially.
“We have a grade school teacher. [She] resigned from her job and took this more as a profession,” Studio Zone chief of staff Achoo Harayo says on the sidelines of TikTok LIVE’s Inaugural Creator Networks Global Summit in Bangkok.
Harayo declines to disclose how much individual creators earn, saying income varies widely. But the former teacher, he says, found she could spend four to five hours a day livestreaming while gaining more control over her time.
For TikTok, stories like hers are part of a much bigger bet: turning livestreaming from an informal online pursuit into a profession—and, behind it, an industry.
The scale is already considerable. More than 240 million creators went LIVE on TikTok globally in 2025, nearly twice the previous year’s level.
More than 21,000 independent creator networks now support 4.7 million LIVE creators worldwide. Southeast Asia accounts for about a quarter of these networks and a third of creators supported by them.
Building a business behind the screen
Unlike the familiar short-form TikTok video, livestreaming requires creators to hold an audience in real time—sometimes for hours.
Money can come partly from virtual gifts sent by viewers, which translate into “diamonds” for creators, according to Harayo. Campaigns and brand partnerships provide additional opportunities.
But simply switching on a camera is not enough to turn LIVE into reliable work.
Studio Zone connected with TikTok Philippines last year and is approaching its first anniversary in October. It had received training and seminars from TikTok, which Harayo said the agency then localized for creators in Cagayan de Oro.
The network once handled more than 100 creators but has since narrowed its roster to about 50 active talents, focusing on those willing to livestream consistently.
“It’s really more of the time and the commitment to do it consistently,” Harayo says.
About 80 to 90 percent of its active creators are based in Cagayan de Oro and nearby provinces. Many had never livestreamed before joining the network.
Studio Zone recruits through referrals, school caravans and mall activities where prospective creators can sing, dance or perform.
Its focus on Mindanao is deliberate.
“We wanted to put the talents from Cagayan de Oro to the world,” Harayo says.
For aspiring performers outside the capital, he argues, LIVE offers a way around a longstanding geographic barrier.
Making a career out of LIVE also requires a different skill set. A singer cannot simply perform for three straight hours, Harayo explains. Creators have to greet viewers, respond to comments and keep audiences engaged while performing.
Consistency is currency
That interaction matters because viewers may reward them with virtual gifts.
Studio Zone has also begun working with brands, particularly in beauty and fitness.
This emerging structure mirrors the broader model TikTok is trying to build.
At the Bangkok summit, which gathered more than 1,000 creator network leaders and other industry stakeholders, TikTok pitched professionalization as the next stage of the creator economy.
TikTok says sustainable growth begins with consistent livestreaming and community safety, alongside audience engagement, production quality and a distinct content identity.
“Professionalization isn’t about scripting creators or changing what makes them authentic,” says Claire Li, TikTok’s head of LIVE creator networks, product and strategy.
“It’s about giving creators the operational foundations, practical guidance and trusted local support they need to build thriving communities and turn their creative passion into sustainable, long-term success,” Li adds.
Whether livestreaming can become a durable full-time career for a much larger pool of Filipinos remains an open question.
Still, Studio Zone has seen enough in its first year to put more money into the business.
Harayo says the agency is preparing to establish a dedicated studio where creators can produce content onsite.
The expansion will require bigger capitalization, one reason he joined the Bangkok summit and studied how more established networks operate their facilities.
The summit also showcased technology meant to support creator networks as the industry scales.
TikTok LIVE introduced LIVE Bax, an artificial intelligence-powered business assistant integrated into LIVE backstage, its official operating platform for creator networks.
It is designed to streamline routine data analysis and provide performance insights, freeing network teams to focus on creator development, production planning and support.
Professionalizing LIVE also means putting guardrails around an industry where creators interact with strangers in real time.
TikTok says it has refined its LIVE monetization guidelines and creator network guidance as part of efforts to uphold content quality, platform integrity and community safety.
Harayo says Studio Zone similarly steps in when creators encounter online harassment or potential account violations, turning lessons from such cases into internal processes and coaching.
“How do you professionalize it?” he says. “That’s what we do as a creator network.”
Studio Zone eventually wants to establish bases elsewhere and bring its model to more talents across the Visayas and Mindanao.
The ambition brings the business back to where it started: giving talent outside the country’s traditional centers another route to an audience.
For a creator in Cagayan de Oro, that could mean performing from a bedroom or living room without first uprooting a life for Manila.
It will not make livestreaming a career for everyone. But for those able to build an audience and consistently show up, the distance between Cagayan de Oro and the rest of the world may now be as small as tapping “Go LIVE.”
