The Wall Street Journal delved into the intricacies of the social influencer era, where a married couple’s joint social media accounts, cultivated to amass a substantial following and generate income, became a contentious issue post-divorce. The battle over these lucrative social media assets, valued differently from traditional assets due to their intertwined content tailored to followers’ desires, posed a unique challenge for appraisers and lawyers.
Valuing these social media accounts accurately proved to be a complex task, unlike dividing typical assets. One legal expert suggested evaluating the current value of the account before considering a division strategy, such as determining which party would be willing to purchase the account from the other, facilitating a settlement.
Take, for instance, the case of the husband-and-wife duo MikeAndKat, with approximately 4 million followers across TikTok and YouTube. Following their divorce, the couple engaged in a legal battle over the ownership of their accounts, ultimately leading Kat to retain the TikTok account while Mike claimed the YouTube channel, resulting in the abandonment of the latter. Kat further expanded the joint account into her own platform, KatStickler, attracting over 10 million followers on TikTok alone.
Nevertheless, the growth potential of separated accounts is not guaranteed. Nina Shayan Depatie, a divorce attorney, emphasized the significance of content in determining the value of joint accounts. Accounts centered around personal narratives may suffer from divorce-related content, diminishing their appeal to followers seeking relational content exclusively.
TLDR: The Wall Street Journal reported on the complexities of dividing joint social media accounts during divorces, showcasing the challenges in valuing interconnected content assets and the subsequent consequences for influencers.
Leave a Comment