For a guy that doesn't say anything Khaby Lame has done rather well for himself.
He's one of the biggest TikTok stars of all time where he makes a huge amount of money for each post where he just silently reacts to things without saying a word.
Evidently there's an audience for what he does and they reckon nobody does a silent reaction that says more than words ever could better than Lame, and now another bit of business has gone his way.
That's because a company called Rich Sparkle Holdings has just announced that it's bought something called Step Distinctive Limited for $975 million, which is associated with the most popular TikToker of all time.
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Khaby Lame is not just going to be some guy on TikTok mugging to the camera, they see him as a long term brand that could rake in $4 billion a year.
There's going to be Khaby Lame content, enough for his profile to bring in billions a year or so, the people who just put pen to paper for a $975 million purchase hope.
Lame is also apparently going to become a 'controlling shareholder' so this might be a very good deal for him personally and there's definitely a lot of money going towards him and his brand.
Also involved as part of the deal is something called 'AI Digital Twin Integration', as Lame has 'authorized the use of his Face ID, Voice ID, and behavioral models for AI Digital Twin development'.
Apparently this opens the door to 'multilingual, multi-version content production' and also 'cross-time-zone, long-duration virtual livestream commerce'.
It sounds like there's going to be an AI version of Khaby Lame to churn out even more money from one of the internet's cash cows.
If you've ever wondered why he doesn't talk in his videos, the TikToker previously explained that he wanted his reactions to personify the 'shaking my head' term which people leave as comments online in the form of 'smh'.
Lame, a Senegalese-Italian man who lost his job at a factory during lockdown and started to go viral with his dances and reactions, had told CNN his reasons for silence back in 2022.
He said: "I came up with the idea because I was seeing these videos circulating, and I liked the idea of bringing some simplicity to it.
"The type of gesture came by chance, but the silence didn't. I thought of a way to reach as many people as possible. And the best way was not to speak.
"Maybe because my facial expressions are funny and they make people laugh, this simplicity makes people laugh and I love it."
Not famous for his speaking voice, some folks have been surprised to hear what he really sounds like.
Topics: Khaby Lame, TikTok, Social Media, AI, Business, Money
Joe Harker