Everything you need to know about Ireland's TikTok house
The GOAT House and its members in Dublin. Pictures: Instagram
Like most things on social media, this is one that has its origins in the States. A recent example is Hype House, a Spanish-style mansion in Los Angeles with 19 members - four of whom live there full time. It was formed in December by a group of TikTok stars. These collab houses or content houses have grown in popularity recently, having first emerged as a concept over 10 years ago. Since then, groups with large followings on Instagram, YouTube, Vine (remember Vine?) and, now, TikTok have flocked to set up houses with fellow influencers. The central idea behind being a member is to boost other creators’ content while they boost your content too. Sounds like a win-win, right?
TikTok is a video-sharing app, where users create and watch short videos featuring elements like singing, dancing, comedy, and lip-syncing. It existed as musical.ly in a previous life and is now owned by ByteDance, a China-based Internet technology company.
You might have seen reports that Donald Trump wants to ban TikTok in the US. Mr Trump recently issued an executive order forcing ByteDance to sell its TikTok operations in the US by September 15.
On September 2, ten social media stars revealed that they were living in Ireland’s first TikTok house, which they named G.O.A.T. House. The TikTeach itself is in a south Dublin suburb and despite the name, they don’t have a pet goat - G.O.A.T. stands for Greatest Of All Time. There’s even a private chef who cooks their meals.
Its members are predominantly TikTok stars, but they all have a big following on other platforms too, including Instagram and YouTube. It’s currently Ireland’s only TikTok house, although it’s not the first one we’ve had. Bel Éire was set up earlier this year but appears to have since been disbanded.
G.O.A.T. co-founder Jake Browne said the collaboration between so many creative minds has been “incredible” so far.
“It’s like a hive mind. We work from about 9am through to 2am or 3am with very little break. It’s a passion,” he told the Irish Examiner.
“We’ve added over 650,000 followers to the group as a whole in the first week. So subjectively we must be improving our content.” Jake said there has been “zero issues” with so many big personalities living in the one home. He described them as an “incredible group of hard working, ethical, positive people.”
All house members underwent Covid-19 testing before moving into the house and Jake said they are doing everything to ensure they are compliant.
“We can say we have a strong covid policy in place and are following the same advice other businesses and/or households are following,” he said.
Instagram: 7k followers
TikTok: 47.5k followers
Instagram: 10.9k followers
Instagram: 32.9k followers
TikTok: 332.4k followers
Instagram: 245k followers
TikTok: 5m followers
Instagram: 25.6k followers
TikTok: 202.2k followers
Instagram: 38.1k followers
TikTok: 350.7k followers
Instagram: 14.6k followers
TikTok: 245.4k followers
Instagram: 17.5k followers
TikTok: 449.7k followers
Those of you paying attention will notice that while ten people moved into the house last week, only nine names are listed above. DJ Marty Guilfoyle was the target of online abuse soon after he shared he was part of the GOAT household and he moved out Friday as a result. In a statement, he said some Twitter users accused him of being "weird" and "predatory" as he is older than some other house members. Speaking on Newstalk yesterday, Marty said he treated the house as a workspace.
“We were coming together to make videos and the only difference between that and a work environment is that I had a bedroom,” he said.
Marty, who works as music producer and radio presenter, added the online comments started almost immediately.
“I don't mean this in a big-headed way, but while [the others] are big on [TikTok], when it came to mainstream media in Ireland I was the recognisable one. There are four teenage girls in there, one is 18 and three are 19, the rest of the people are in their 20s, in fact, 29 and 30.
"Someone decided to put up a tweet saying 'there's something very predatory about Marty Guilfoyle being in there while there's teenage girls in there' with no other mention of anyone else in the house.
"That started to catch fire and really take off on Twitter. I was shocked, I couldn't believe it because to me that was just me coming into work.”
Jake said the online trolling they experienced was “just so typically Irish” but said no one else feels any pressure to move out because of comments online.
“Every big sports star, actor, musician or business person we produce eventually gets chased out of the country. There’s an island mentality to it, if you’re doing something different you’re wrong. We want to change that,” he said.
He said he believes Marty is “a phenomenal guy and he will bounce back even stronger than before.”
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