A former factory worker has become the most followed star on TikTok, two years after he created an account on the social media app after losing his job during the pandemic.

Khabane Lame, 22, became the world’s top TikToker and officially overtaking American sensation Charli D’Amelio, 18 who formerly had the distinction. As of Thursday afternoon, Lame has a staggering 142.8 million followers compared with D’Amelio, who now have close behind with 142.3 million.

“THE KING IS NUMBER 1 ON TIKTOK,” one fan exclaimed beneath Lame’s most recent clip after he surged into the top spot.

Lame, who identifies himself as a comedian and shares humorous clips that mock clout-chasing influencers and their over-the-top videos, has yet to comment on the milestone moment himself.

Lame, who’s based in Italy, initially rose to fame through his use of TikTok’s duet and stitch features, reacting wordlessly to complicated and absurd “life hacks”. He now primarily posts silent comedy skits, racking up millions of views and likes. His following began exploding last year, and in recent weeks, fans have launched efforts to push him to the top.

Lame’s ascent and unseating of D’Amelio is significant. D’Amelio and her sister, Dixie, are two of the central figureheads of TikTok, building an entire media brand atop what they themselves admit was initially accidental stardom.

Their meteoric rise to fame through seconds-long dancing videos has perplexed people not on TikTok, and inspired millions of followers to try to do the same. The sisters earned an estimated $27.5 million last year, according to estimates by Forbes.

Lame becoming the most popular personality on TikTok is notable given past issues raised by users on the platform around how creators of color, and specifically Black creators, are treated.

In 2020, in response to accusations that the TikTok algorithm suppresses Black creators’ content, the company pledged to take steps, including creating a diversity council and donating money to nonprofit making organizations “that help the Black community”.

Last year, citing a lack of credit for choreographing viral dances to hit songs, some Black creators took part in an informal strike, refusing to create dances that otherwise might disproportionately benefit white creators.

TikTok as one of the fastest growing brands

TikTok, known in China as Douyin, is a short-form video hosting service owned by Chinese company ByteDance. It hosts a variety of short-form user videos, from genres like pranks, stunts, tricks, jokes, dance, and entertainment with durations from 15 seconds to ten minutes.

TikTok is an international version of Douyin, which was originally released in the Chinese market in September 2016. TikTok was launched in 2017 for iOS and Android in most markets outside of mainland China. However, it became available worldwide only after merging with another Chinese social media service, Musical.ly, on August 2, 2018.

TikTok and Douyin have almost the same user interface but no access to each other’s content. Their servers are each based in the market where the respective app is available. The two products are similar, but features are not identical.

Douyin includes an in-video search feature that can search by people’s faces for more videos of them and other features such as buying, booking hotels and making geo-tagged reviews. Since its launch in 2016, TikTok and Douyin rapidly gained popularity in virtually all parts of the world. TikTok surpassed 2 billion mobile downloads worldwide in October 2020.

Morning Consult ranked TikTok as the third fastest growing brand of 2020, after only Zoom and Peacock. Cloudflare ranked TikTok as the most popular website of 2021, surpassing Google.