TikTok has been adding new features in a bid to widen the scope its usage, thereby growing its user-base. The short video app has welcomed many new ideas outside its original business, incorporating them through partnership with different companies.
To this end, Contra, a professional network for freelance workers, has jumped on the bandwagon, partnering with TikTok to allow users to showcase their resumes and portfolios via TikTok Jump, the social media service’s third-party integration tool.
The partnership marks TikTok’s indirect delve into professional networking, and signals that there will be more features in the future to accommodate new ideas.
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The new partnership will allow creators to link their Contra profile to their TikTok videos to showcase their professional portfolios, TechCrunch reports, explaining that other functions of the integration and what the companies hope to achieve with it.
With this new integration, creators can now add a “View My Portfolio” link to their TikTok content. Viewers will then be able to tap the link and see the creator’s Contra profile, check out their services and send a request to collaborate.
Contra says the integration makes it easier to share professional work and get new client leads. It plans to launch another Jump integration that will allow companies that are hiring to post TikTok content with a link to apply to the job directly with the viewer’s Contra profile. The company says the partnership allows independent workers to replace traditional resumes with more engaging methods to showcase their work.
“TikTok has become one of the leading places for people to get career advice and find out about amazing roles, so it only makes sense that creators should also be able to showcase their amazing professional work on the platform,” said Contra founder and CEO Ben Huffman in a statement.
Earlier this year, Contra raised a $14.5 million Series A led by Unusual Ventures, with participation from Cowboy Ventures and Li Jin’s recently announced Atelier Ventures. Two weeks ago, the company brought in $30 million in Series B funding, led by NEA, with participation from Unusual Ventures and Cowboy Ventures.
The platform wants professionals to create profiles that show project-based identities, versus a role-based identity that one would show on LinkedIn. Contra’s goal is to help independent workers create high-signal referral networks so they can land new opportunities. Unlike LinkedIn, where you can add anyone you meet and they become a “connection,” Contra requires you to have work experience with your network.
The company’s partnership with TikTok allows it to reach more millennial and Gen Z users and possibly help them land new opportunities. Since launching TikTok Jump in June, the social media giant has partnered with many companies, such as Quizlet, Wikipedia, BuzzFeed and Jumprope, to allow them to create their own integrations within its app.
TikTok’s rapid-growing user-base is being driven by its integrated diversification that includes e-commerce. The social media company has recorded a huge number of users that saw it beating other social media platforms, including YouTube in user records.
In September, TikTok hit one billion monthly global users, a milestone for the company that was launched in 2016. In the same month, it surpassed YouTube for average watch time in the US and UK. The Contra professional network integration is expected to further boost the number of TikTok’s users.