Creators elsewhere have been landing brand campaigns through TikTok One for a while. Now it's our turn. On 28 September 2026 TikTok announced that TikTok One has officially expanded to South Africa, after a phased rollout across the region.
Why it matters: until now, most local brand deals have happened through DMs, agencies and whoever-knows-whom. TikTok One puts a formal, in-app marketplace between creators and the brands looking for them. The entry bar is lower than you might think.
What TikTok One actually is
TikTok describes it as its official collaboration platform for sponsored content and commercial partnerships. The creator side, called TikTok One Creator Marketplace, sits inside TikTok Studio. It's one place to find paid opportunities and manage the brand work you've taken on.
Depending on the opportunity, brands can find you through your niche, you can apply to a campaign, or you can earn from videos you've already posted.
The three ways to earn
| Option | What you do | Minimum followers |
|---|---|---|
| Spark Opportunity (Content Suite) | Let a brand run one of your existing videos as a Spark Ad | 500 |
| Creative Challenge (Creator Content At Scale) | Make new videos from a brand's brief | 1,000 |
| Creator Led Package | Work on campaigns through an approved creator marketing agency | By invitation |
Spark Opportunity is performance-based. You give a brand permission to promote a video you've already made, and you're paid when those ads run. You need at least 500 followers and must have signed up for TikTok One in the app.
Creative Challenge works from a brief. You create videos to a brand's spec, and what you earn depends on how the content performs and how much media money goes behind it. The bar here is 1,000 followers, plus the in-app sign-up.
Creator Led Package is the agency route. Approved creator marketing agencies invite creators one by one, based on what each campaign needs. There's no follower number to hit, but you need to be on an agency's radar.
One caveat TikTok spells out: getting onto the platform doesn't guarantee work. Every campaign still has its own requirements, and brands choose who fits.
South Africa has an incredible creator community, and TikTok One gives them a direct pathway to work with local and global brands.
— Zethu Mthethwa, Head of Sales at TikTok, Sub-Saharan Africa
Why brands are paying attention
For marketers, the pitch is simpler discovery. Instead of hunting for local creators by hand, brands can find and brief them inside the same system they already use to buy TikTok ads.
The global numbers TikTok shared explain the push. Between June 2025 and May 2026, the number of creators receiving rewards through TikTok One rose 90% year on year, and creators are taking part in more than twice as many brand collaborations each month. For creators with more than 50,000 followers, monthly rewards value for TikTok One campaigns was up 40% year on year in May 2026.
On the demand side, TikTok cites figures that 77% of Millennials and Gen Z say they're more likely to buy from a brand featured by a creator they trust, and that 93% of brands planned to put a bigger share of their budgets into creator collaborations in 2025.
It sits alongside TikTok's existing income options: LIVE Gifts, Subscription and Work with Artists.
What to do with this
- Sign up now, even if you're small. At 500 followers you already qualify for Spark Opportunity, so your back catalogue can start working for you.
- Get your best videos brand-ready. Spark Ads use content you've already posted. Clean, on-niche videos with a clear hook are the ones a brand will want to boost.
- Aim for 1,000 if you're close. That unlocks Creative Challenge, where you're paid to make new work from briefs.
- Treat agencies as a separate channel. The Creator Led Package is invite-only, so being visible to local creator agencies still matters.
- Brands: use it to test lots of smaller SA creators quickly, then build longer partnerships with the ones whose content performs.
Source: Unlocking New Ways for South African Creators to Earn through TikTok One, TikTok Newsroom, 28 September 2026. This article is frontcamera's summary and analysis; read the original for the full piece.