Dubai Is Not Short Of Influencers – When Is It Getting A Hype House
Dubai is the perfect setting for a ‘collab’ house, the social media trend taking Los Angeles, and the world, by storm.
ICYMI, collab houses were created for the sole purpose of housing ‘fluencers to create better content for TikTok. High profile influencers live together, they eat together and they create content together to grow their fanbase.
Some of the biggest hype houses in the States are home to teens and young twenty-somethings who live in what look like colossal LA mansions. They host parties, invite other influencers to come to visit, and thus create more videos which can collectively amass millions and millions of views. If you’re a teen on TikTok, this looks like the dream.
Teens are glued to the antics of these houses on TikTok, brands are so interested that industry people are quietly renting mansions and inviting up and coming TikTokers to live there and the trend is so big, it’s spreading globally. Houses sprouted up across Europe this summer, and so in a city FULL of ‘fluencers, it seems like the next step for a city like Dubai.
Dubai Is Not Short Of Influencers – When Is It Getting A Hype House
TikTok was THE most downloaded app of 2020
HypeAuditor analysed over 3.1 million TikTok influencer accounts from around the world and 34.1k influencer feeds in the UAE and findings prove the UAE lurrvssss TikTok, with the seven emirates ranking 11th by the number of TikTok influencers globally (so if there is ever an Olympic medal for how many TikTok ‘fluencers by country… we’d rank 11th!).
And users love the app too! With the engagement rate of TikTok influencers in the UAE at 20.04%, it’s higher than the average worldwide engagement rate AND it’s a money maker for some… 2.16% of UAE TikTok ‘fluencers have over 100k followers and they’re pulling in dirhams for their content.
Collab houses have proven to be a path to success for young content creators and paint a picture of a glamourous lifestyle for teens. An invite means you’ll grow your fanbase and a bigger ability to sell merchandise and make money. Living in a mansion with your mates, making videos… Irt sounds like the dream, although there are plenty of reports of strife, fallouts and mismanagement of young, impressionable adults.
Turning a popular TikTok account into a business is a tricky job for teens, but entering a hype house propels your page forward, your followers grow, brand interest increases, and you’ll also become part of the history of the house. If the house becomes famous, you will too.
The houses, in turn, create house pages, to promote their merch and the current occupants
It’s not just TikTokers who follow these houses
The history of Hype Houses is regularly documented by New York Times reporter Taylor Lorenz. They’ve been around for years, but their astronomical growth came at an interesting time, during the COVID era.
Traditionally, paparazzi follow celebs in LA to fancy restaurants or wait outside their homes. COVID times meant Hollywood celebs retreated to their pads, but the TikTok mansion walls are not quite so high.
Throughout COVID, some collab houses controversially continued to host parties and the platform stars, seeing a glimpse of fame for the first time, started hitting the LS restaurant scene. While you may not know these names, stars like Charli D’Amelio – (24.9 million on TikTok) Loren Gray – (38.9 million on TikTok) have massive clout and their fame on the app is appealing to a hypnotised audience.
Dubai will do it different
I never expect to see a group of unmarried twenty-somethings living in the same house in Dubai, but IF a collab house was on the horizon you could probably guess how it would work.
A beachfront hotel that already has swanky private villas may start inviting groups of influencers to stay and produce content together. (Where LA does one mansion, Dubai could probably sort five). When brands hear of the move, they’ll be the first to add product placements to the houses, which will then be flogged ruthlessly by the creators.
The invites would be like gold dust for influencers, attending gives you the option to meet other influencers with big followings and make videos together. It’s a Win-Win for them.
The majority of Collab houses are created by the creators themselves
Where one ‘fluencer goes, others flock and the majority of hype houses are created by content creators themselves who see the value of collaboration.
If you’re a close watcher of big UAE accounts, you’ll notice there are already pockets of influencers who create content together. Like, Karen Wazen, (4.6 million IG followers) Mr Moudz (172 k followers) and Tracy Harmoush (250k followers), they look like BEST mates, could they be influenced to join forces in a stately home, paid for by advertisers?
Or Sarah Miladd, who has one of the UAE’s biggest TikTok followings and has racked up 78 MILLION likes on her content. There are no rules for her content, she posts regularly, with a mash-up of trending choreography, mixed with skits and some well-placed ads. Would she join forces to boost her followership even more? It sounds like a weird concept but it’s proven a major success in other markets, so it’s really only a matter of time before we see something similar in Dubai.
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