A "Sub Space" is TikTok's new live engagement feature, which is basically subscriber-only, chat-like to ideally incentivize more sign-ups by giving dedicated focus in live chats for subscribers.
Sub Space is actually a new option available as part of TikTok's Live subscription tools that are going to enable the setting of what is essentially a private chat room for members alone, who are paying for membership.
Once the Sub Space is configured, creators will either engage in these chats live, on camera, streaming, to give subscribers their very own space to talk to them in real time or to join the text chat with them.

As stated above, therefore, it's like having a private chat room but only available for the paying users who will either isolate the discussion to the live broadcast from other viewers or provide you with another means to text back and forth with your paying audience.

That way may create more subscriptions, mostly to the bigger-name creaters who already have the committed following in the application. Many would pay the fee to gain exclusive access to big stars, and so it would allow the creation to focus more on them who are financially supporting their craft.

It may also witness creators not engaging in the public chat as much anymore, another way to force more subscriptions. Which could well work, and it'll be interesting to see exactly how TikTok creators look to use the option, and what the results of that more siloed engagement activity might be.

TikTok is set to continue on its crusade to make live streams a larger part of the app, as part of a wider push to drive in-stream shopping, with its Chinese version now seeing revenue come through live shopping.

Still, in-stream shopping options from TikTok have yet to capture much of the Western world's imagination, though it is still optimistic it can begin churning more money through its systems in this way.

And there are some hopeful signs here, too-in-app spending is still increasing, primarily because of donations to creators-and that suggests, at least, users are growing steadily comfortable with making their purchases inside the app.

And if TikTok can convert that engagement, and its increasing use as a discovery platform, into more direct spending, the opportunity is huge.

In China, for instance, Douyin-the domestic version of TikTok-sees more than $274 billion in product sales through the app every year. This is up 60% year-over-year.

To put that in perspective, TikTok users spent around $4 billion through the app, in aggregate, during the same period.
You can see why TikTok is continuing to push its in-stream shopping elements, then. And while now some users are complaining that the app is getting too commercial and adding too many shopping nudges in, so with potentially hundreds of billions of dollars on the line, I suspect TikTok will weather those first concerns.

Enhanced live-stream chat is another little step in its expanded spending push.