Tiktok Sensation, Purple Speedy Inspires with Her Success Story on Platform
Over the last decade and a half, there has been a big uptick in the adoption of social media in Nigeria with platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter becoming leading destinations for conversations among young Nigerians as well as helping to serve as a barometer for public opinion and thoughts on a range of matters. The ever-increasing popularity of these platforms has also led to the rise of a new generation of stars who are adept are navigating these platforms, their usage patterns, and connecting with people en masse.
No single platform provides the tool for such immersive community-building as TikTok does and it is that very factor that has made Purple Speedy a favourite on the app.
Born Peace Pever Anpee, the content creator has come a long way from her upbringing in Gboko, Benue State, thanks to her quirky TikTok dance-along videos and challenge attempts that have helped her build a followership of over 6.5 million people on the platform since joining four years ago. “The first time I heard of TikTok was in 2019, and what I basically loved from TikTok was the acting,” Purple Speedy says.
“In fact, if you check my first video on TikTok, it was me mimicking a particular person. So, I wanted to do acting. But then, I saw trends on TikTok that I really loved and they were mostly those dance trends.”
Like most people who originally came to TikTok, Purple Speedy was initially unsure of how to approach her journey on the platform but came back to the platform in 2020 due to the lockdown restrictions that followed the COVID-19 pandemic. Keen to make a success of her time on the platform, she pivoted actively towards following the trends she loved and dedicated her time to creating the content she enjoyed all while establishing herself with the purple colour.
Her first video to go viral came courtesy of a dance-along video she did to Goya Menor’s “Ameno Amapiano” in December 2020, leading her to realise that she could build a community on the platform. “I was just basically vibing to the song. I got a lot of comments. People said I should recreate it, then I recreated it and it was really nice,” Purple Speedy says. Since then, she has gone on to work on a variety of campaigns and tracked the disparity between being a passive user of TikTok and a dedicated content creator.
“There’s a very big difference between being a content creator and just watching videos, because first of all, you have to follow trends if you are a content creator,” she explains. “There are things like trends, you have to follow them, and you have to make a difference. You have to make a unique thing when there’s a particular trend for people to know. This particular person is on the app.’ So, when you’re following these particular trends, they are seeing your work. So, the next trend that is up, they are expecting what you can do on the trend. If a song is out now, for me, I dance on TikTok. I do skits, too.”
