Ten years ago, Sean Parker, well-known as the co-founder of Napster, Facebook’s first president, and an early investor in Spotify, launched a social app called Cantina.
The concept is simple: users make their own AI characters (“bots”) and chat with them. It’s like Character.AI, but crossed with a social network. It’s meant for sharing characters, not just having private conversations.
Back in April, we covered how this app climbed from to #29 in Social Networking by testing UGC with only 11 ambassador accounts.
We predicted they’d keep pushing UGC.
What we didn’t know is it would get this big, this fast.
From 11 to 55+
Back in February, Cantina started building out its TikTok ambassador program.
By August, most accounts were still under 1 million views.
But now, just 30 days later:
- 26.2M views across their creator network
- 139M+ total views so far
- 16 UGC creators regularly getting over 1M views each
Behind-the-scenes
Cantina put together a strong ambassador program with a pay-per-view model that rewards performance. Here’s what we found:
Ambassadors need to be based in the U.S. and use an iOS device.
They get paid after completing tasks and can earn bonuses based on how well they perform. Payments are capped at $5,000 per month.
Here’s the breakdown:
- $25 for completing onboarding
- $10 for consistent 7-day posts
- $5 for weekly insights
- $5 for posts with 500 views
- $10 for posts with 1k views
- $25 for posts with 5k views
- $50 for posts with 10k views
- $100 for posts with 100k views
- $250 for posts with 250k views
- $500 for posts with 500k views
- $1,000 for posts with 1m views
We estimate at least $110K–$120K+ paid out so far, excluding bonuses and onboardings.
Zoom-in on the winners
Several creators have been going viral consistently. They’re testing out different UGC styles, but one type is clearly leading.
Family-style stories with Cantina at the heart of the plot are getting the highest views so far.
tt@crazyaichats – 9.1M views → “my grandma died and this is how my mom tells me ????”
tt@bia.chats – 6.5M views → “my sister apparently got an abortion and this is how she broke the news to my family???”
tt@syndie.chats – 6.6M views → “WHO is teaching my dad how to make these AI videos…im literally gonna get you”
Each of these posts kicks off with a quick 1–2 second UGC clip, then jumps to a screen recording of a crazy AI animation sent by a family member.
Most of the video is a demo of the app, and nearly all of them wrap up with a super blunt and out-of-place CTA, sometimes synced with a sound that matches Cantina’s logo.
Funny enough, Gen Z viewers love it.
Rinse-and-repeat
Creators repeat whatever goes right, and how that’s they nail the scaling bit (and the bonuses, of course).
If you check tt@crazyaichats’s account, you’ll notice that all her top videos have an extremely similar opening clip, 100% all recorded in the same day and in under 5 minutes.
Not just that, she also repeats the same hooks over and over again.
- “my grandma died and this is how my mom tells me” → 9.1M views
- “my grandma dies and this is how i find out?” → 1M views
- “my hamster died and this is how i find out” → 299K views
- “my dog dies and this is how my mom tells me” → 325K views
Now look at tt@bia.chats
- “my sister apparently got an abortion and this is how she broke the news to my family????” → 6.5M views
- “this is what my sister texted me after getting kicked out of her boyfriend’s house” → 2.7M views
- “the guy i’ve been seeing for 3 MONTHS just sent me this??? i’m speechless.” → 3.8M views
- “accidentally texted my situationship ‘i love you’ and THIS is what she replied with” → 785.9K views
- “my parents are in a cruise in florida and one week later i receive this text from my mom???” → 577.1K views
You might not have the budget (yet) for big bonus payouts.
But you can still get smart with it.
Repost viral content across faceless, intern-run, or personal accounts, just like they do and watch your app go from a one-hit wonder to a download making machine.
You can track all their accounts here: https://app.shortimize.com/c/2b10LeVLY80iYy
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