Cape Town – Senegalese-born TikToker, Khabane Lame or khaby.lame as he is known on the Chinese-owned video-sharing focused social networking service, is the first person in Europe and the second person in the world to reach 100 million followers on the popular short-form videos application.
Khaby is a 21-year-old creator who was born in Senegal and moved to Chivasso, Italy with his family when he was a year old, according to a statement by TikTok.
According to new website BBC.com, 16-year-old Charli D'Amelio become the first TikTok user to cross the 100 million subscriber mark in November 2020.
Amelio, from Norwalk, Connecticut, United States, hit the milestone after a year and a half on the application, according to reports.
TikTok said that although the young man began his social media journey during the Covid-19 pandemic, during a time when Italy was in lockdown, he was one of the millions of people around the world who had lost their jobs because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“His desire to make the most out of his situation and turn it into an opportunity to achieve his dream of making people laugh motivated him to start a TikTok account and share his first comedy videos,” said the short-form video application.
His bio on his TikTok page says, ‘If you wanna laugh u r in the right place’.
The content on his feed has amassed millions of views and counting, as people daily look for a comical escape during these difficult times, and in only 17 months, Lame became one of the most popular and influential TikTok creators in the world.
His knack for using his unique creativity and sense of humor to spread joy to a global community, includes his iconic facial expressions and use of irony in his videos.
In a Q&A with TikTok, Lame said that his inspiration for his content goes way back to when he was a kid watching ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’ with Will Smith.
‘I loved his comedy and I also loved all of his movies. So I decided to record some sketches on YouTube with a friend of mine and, even though there were very few views, I enjoyed making them,’ said Lame.
Lame says he considers himself a simple guy, and that it’s important for him to always remain down-to-earth and true to his original idea of making videos to have fun and make others laugh.
African News Agency (ANA)