TikTok Mansions Are Publicly Traded Now

Good enough. The mansions are photo setups that look pretty and provide background for videos. The company gets money, the influencers have nice background to look rich, and the public have something to increase their insecurities.

It’s a revenue share rent model. Kinda like if a commercial office lease based the rent on the revenue the law firm tenant makes every month instead of rent being a flat monthly payment, say 10% or so vs $2500 /month.

The idea is the posh lifestyle image contributes to the public persona a social influencer has, thereby increasing reach and effectiveness of the advertising he/she makes and resulting in higher revenue.

For the influencer (typically not cash rich), it’s a way to up their credential and daily lifestyle without needing the up-front money required.

For the holding company, I presume they forecast the return from the revenue split of one or many tenants in the house is a multiple higher than if they just leased the property out at whatever market rate.

It’s a terribly toxic model for all involved. I suspect it won’t last long as a profitable arrangement for anyone and when it no longer is, lots of damage will occur to all parties.

While technically true, I think you're getting the wrong idea about how they're used. The properties aren't being used as backdrops for random videos -- they're the permanent residence for a few selected content creators.

West of Hudson Group; among others, primarily act as managers for influencer 'groups'. As part of that management, they're providing housing.

As with Kpop groups or Esports teams, the norm is for these groups to live together. Thus, the groups are called 'houses , and one of the responsibilities of managing them is figuring out where they can live.

In the case of West of Hudson, according to the linked page, the director of the company owns the relevant properties, the company itself is renting them, and then providing housing to members as a part of a broader collaboration & revenue sharing deal.