In this paper, we track changes to what we call TikTok’s “platform tools.” Our periodization points to three major implications that stem from this growing toolkit of official tools (i.e., tools sanctioned by TikTok): (1) the formalization and professionalization of platform content, (2) the standardization of platform-dependent cultural production, and (3) the further platformization of TikTok’s platform logic both within, as well as outside the cultural industries. While our research is primarily exploratory in nature, it is ultimately meant to serve as the impetus for further inquiries into how content creators grapple with the limitations of both platform-sanctioned but also the unsanctioned means of cultural production. As TikTok’s competitors are widening their economic and infrastructural scope to mimic TikTok, we expect a further centralization of control over the tools that are at the heart of the creator economy.