In a move that could shake up the livestreaming landscape, Favorited, a startup founded last year, has announced a $1.3 million pre-seed funding round to fuel its growth and take on established players like TikTok. The app, which closely resembles TikTok Live, aims to enable creators to engage with their followers in real-time through interactive features like gifting, games, streaks, leaderboards, and more.

Favorited's standout feature is its competitive revenue split of 70/30 for creators, which could be more favorable than TikTok's 50% cut. To start streaming on Favorited, users need at least 100 followers, but anyone can join existing streams and participate in "battles" and collaborations to promote themselves and gain new followers. The app's founders, David Tesler and Zach Ferraro, believe that the future of content is interactive and collaborative, and are committed to gamifying livestreams.

The recent funding round occurs amid fierce competition among various apps seeking to capitalize on livestream monetization. Whatnot, a platform where users can sell items via livestreams, recently raised $265 million, increasing its valuation to an impressive $4.97 billion. RedNote, a Chinese alternative that offers livestreaming, achieved the top rank for free apps on the U.S. App Store just last week. Favorited's ability to attract impressive investors in a competitive market is a testament to its potential.

The app currently boasts over 750,000 users, with popular creators like Jaysingz reportedly earning over $40,000 in one month while streaming on Favorited. The newly raised capital has been allocated to product development, and has helped the company double its team from 10 to 20 employees. Looking ahead, the company plans to scale globally and is in discussions with strategic investors about additional external capital, although Ferraro noted that it doesn't necessarily need it. The platform claims it's generating more than $4 million in monthly revenue, with creators on Favorited gifted more than $2.5 million in the past week alone.

Favorited's success is a significant development in the livestreaming space, which has seen mainstream platforms like TikTok and Instagram face backlash and outages in recent weeks. As the app continues to grow and expand its features, it will be interesting to see how it competes with established players and shapes the future of interactive content.

Favorited is available to download on the App Store and Google Play Store, with over 1.3 million app installs to date. With its unique features and competitive revenue split, the app is poised to become a major player in the livestreaming market.