It’s been around fifteen years since the world adopted the term “digital influencer” to label those who started to retain our attention on the internet. And if we take a quick look back, we see a clear lineage.
First, the crown of influence was given to those who were already famous on television or in sports. Then it passed to the pioneers of YouTube, who turned bedrooms into studios. Then, Instagram’s impeccable aesthetic took on the role of dictating who had the right to create consumer trends and who didn’t.
And then TikTok arrived.
In the early years, those who already reigned on other networks looked at the Chinese application with some disdain. Not for nothing. The first TikTokers produced content that sounded dissonant with everything we had consumed until then.
The platform seemed like just the playground for a lost generation of teenagers synchronizing their lips in amateur dubs and inventing frenetic dances without any embarrassment. The consensus in the advertising market was that this was nothing more than cheap entertainment.
However, what seemed like just a joke, little by little, began to change. Creators who produced quality content, but who were unable to break the rigid engagement bubble of other social networks, began to migrate there.
Little by little, people started to use the network not just to pass the time, but to look for real answers: travel itinerary tips, practical tutorials, cleaning tricks and practical product reviews.
TikTok got the message perfectly: if users were looking for detailed tips, it’s because they wanted to consume. And if they wanted to consume, why let them leave the app to swipe their card elsewhere? Why not centralize everything there?
The rise of the TikTok Shop
TikTok Shop officially began operating in Brazil in May 2025. At first, many (and I humbly include myself on this list) thought it was just another attempt to promote live commerce – a format that Brazilians have always viewed, since the pandemic, with some suspicion. But it was much more than that.
The tool has revolutionized the way brands can sell and, mainly, how creators can make money, creating a profitable alternative to the already saturated (and often “flopped”) market of published posts.
Just to measure this impact, TikTok Shop reached US$32.6 billion in sales globally in 2024. In Brazil, the platform reached US$46.1 million in monthly sales volume (GMV) in August 2025, in addition to recording a 26-fold jump in its average daily revenue in its first months of national operation.
In practice, it works like this: brands create their stores directly within the platform, integrating their e-commerce and stock centers. On the other hand, content creators (with more than 2 thousand followers) can affiliate with them in a decentralized sales model. The creator adds the product link in his video and earns attractive commissions for each transaction made. Anything goes: endless lives, videos with creative appeals or a mix of both.
When the first TikTokers started selling on the TikTok Shop, in exchange for their first revenue, I saw many – supposedly – established influencers turn up their noses, thinking that acting as an “affiliate” was demeaning the glamor of the profession. The irony? Today, the entire market watches some of the most famous people in Brazil exploring the tool.
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Os Reis do TikTok Shop
NJR Eyewear, an eyewear brand linked to Neymar Jr., had more than R$135,000 in sales in the first hour alone. Instead of acting as the classic static poster boy, the player interacted live, presented product details and generated more than 10 million impressions, placing the brand at the top of the platform’s fashion category.
This real-time conversion logic also hooked giants in the beauty niche, such as Camila Pudim (). In a single three-hour live on TikTok Shop, she sold seven thousand products from her new makeup brand, generating gross revenue of R$290,000. The creator herself summed up the phenomenon accurately, highlighting that live streaming brings a closeness and organic interaction that the static photo on an e-commerce site simply cannot replicate.
And this phenomenon is not restricted to those who have already achieved fame. Small businesses are rebuilding their operations around this new dynamic. , a layette brand from Ibitinga, in the interior of São Paulo, is a portrait of this change. The company achieved revenue of R$200,000 per month exclusively through its in-app store, which now represents 75% of the business’s total revenue. The impact on the operation was such that the brand registered an overall growth of 50% since it began selling directly through the chain.
But the great revolution is happening at the base, with creators who understand that vanity does not pay bills – but commissions, yes. They left aesthetics aside to take the front line as the new commercial sellers.
Entrepreneur Nusa Maria () became one of the precursors of this new “Live Seller” profession. She earned more than R$600,000 in less than six months by testing products in real time and convincing her viewers to buy. The result, however, is the result of intense effort: Nusa reports routines of 12 to 14 hours of daily transmissions, but says that the result is worth it.
Completing this billion-dollar ecosystem, we have profiles focused entirely on performance niches. This is the case of Dr Pimenta (), an Arab perfumery retailer who claims to have already accumulated more than R$10 million in revenue.
What do they all have in common? Unlike lifestyle creators, they are not concerned with selling appearance and social status. Their business is real selling.
More than influencers, sellers
What we are witnessing is not just a change in format, but a historical rupture in the role of each character in the chain. Historically, since the golden age of TV, the figure of influence has always lent its face to generate reputation, desire and trust, but has rarely been asked to liquidate the stock at the end of the process. Now, the glass barrier between the marketing area and the sales counter has been definitively shattered. The influencer literally became the store salesperson.
This rewrites the rules of the game and our understanding of where real market value lies. Audience for audience sake, without conversion attached, is quickly becoming just an isolated vanity metric.
Therefore, I close our Idea Therapy today with a brief provocation: can you imagine what the role of digital influencers will be in 15 years?
