Nakeyta Glover, a Black TikTok creator known as @naturally_nakeyta, recently shared her experience on the platform, alleging that Ninja Kitchen, the brand behind the popular indoor grill, used her viral content without compensating her. Glover’s journey began when she purchased the grill and started creating food-related videos, which quickly gained millions of views. As her content garnered more attention, her followers began tagging Ninja Kitchen in the comments, urging the company to pay her for the promotional content.
This prompted Glover to continue producing videos, hoping to secure a partnership with the company. Eventually, Ninja Kitchen began commenting on her posts, asking if they could repost her videos for free. Glover, however, was taken aback by this request, given the massive engagement her content was receiving. She questioned why the company didn’t think her work was worth paying for, given the visibility and popularity it was bringing to their brand. Despite this, Glover chose to ignore the comments and continued to create content.
However, weeks later, a representative from Ninja Kitchen reached out to her via TikTok. After Glover sent emails requesting a response, she still did not hear back from the company. This situation left her confused and frustrated, as she could not understand why a brand that clearly appreciated her content was unwilling to pay for it. As the company raked in over $4 billion in revenue in 2023, Glover found it even more perplexing that they were unwilling to compensate her for her work.
While investigating the situation, Glover realized that the influencers Ninja Kitchen had worked with in the past all seemed to be white, prompting her to question the company’s commitment to diversity and fair treatment of Black creators. She referenced the persistent pay gap faced by Black influencers, with studies showing that Black influencers are often paid significantly less than their white counterparts—sometimes as much as 35% less. This inequality in influencer marketing has been a long-standing issue, with many Black creators speaking out about being underpaid or not compensated at all for their work.
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