KUALA LUMPUR: Data engineer-turned-social-media-influencer Abdul Qayyum Halid emerged the top winner at the TikTok Awards 2024 tonight.
Abdul Qayyum, 28, or Che Sayang won the Creator Of The Year award determined by public voting.
The Sitiawan-born who loves to cook thanked his fans for supporting his culinary-themed TikTok videos.
"Thank you so much for supporting my social media posts. Food, especially Malaysian traditional cuisine, is my passion," said Abdul Qayyum who has more than 500 million Instagram followers.
The Universiti Teknologi Petronas, Seri Iskandar, graduate shares traditional Malay, Chinese and Indian recipes with netizens.
Abdul Qayyum, who began posting his videos in March last year, believes in inspiring people to pursue their dreams.
"I've learned lots of recipes from my mother. She is a very good cook, and she always gives me feedback on what I cook," said the second of five siblings.
Acap (Ashraf Jaafar), Tang Guo, Nicholas Lim Pinn Yang, Amin and Abid Othman and Aishah Rahim won the Live Creator Of The Year, Food Creator Of The Year, Shop Creator Of The Year, Education Creator Of The Year and Beauty And Fashion Creator Of The Year respectively.
The other winners were King Shah (Gaming Creator Of The Year), Amar & Anas (Sports Creator Of The Year), handicapped activist Izhar Idham (Braderwheelchair) and the environmentalist Lokohopunoh Group (Changemaker Of The Year), Yimotapir (Animation Creator Of The Year), Bella Astillah (Celebrity Of The Year), Agy (Video Of The Year) and Kanafly (Entertainment Creator Of The Year).
The two-hour awards held at the World Trade Centre Kuala Lumpur (WTCKL) in Jalan Putra here at 9pm was created to celebrate and give recognition to Malaysian content providers.
There were 72 nominees in 12 award categories.
The awards featured two main segments — Judges' Pick and People's Choice.
For Judges' Pick, nominees were selected based on a set of criteria and evaluated by an executive panel, which included last year's top winner Khairul Aming, TikTok general manager for Southeast Asian content operations Angga Anugrah Putra and Media Prima TV Networks and Primeworks Studios chief executive officer Nini Yusof.
The executive panel judged each creator based on his or her category — Entertainment, Animation, Gaming, Food, Education, Sports, and Beauty And Fashion.
For the People's Choice segment, TikTok provided Malaysians with the opportunity to cast their votes for their favourite creators.
Public voting for the five categories — Creator Of The Year, Celebrity Of The Year, Video Of The Year, Live Creator Of The Year and Shop Creator Of The Year — began on July 25 and ended on Aug 9.
TikTok head of public policy for Malaysia Anuar Fariz Fadzil said as a platform that intended to inspire creativity and spark joy, the TikTok Awards were a step further in celebrating fresh aspirations and demonstrating the power that dreams hold in creating a new era of possibilities for creators.
"By commemorating local creators and their content, the TikTok Awards showcases truly diverse facets of Malaysian culture for viewers around the world to enjoy."
Anuar added in light of celebrating new dreams, this year's awards introduced a brand new award, Changemaker of the Year.
TV3 content general manager Marlia Zul Amran said TV3 was honoured to be the main platform for the second TikTok Awards, underscoring the strong collaboration between TV3 and TikTok.
"The event not only celebrates content creators who inspire but also shapes our digital world, reinforcing TV3's vision to inform, inspire, entertain and broadcast fresh and innovative content to our audiences."
With the theme of Celebrating New Dreams, the awards was beamed live on TV3 and live-streamed via TikTok Malaysia.
A stellar line-up of celebrities and creators graced the stage, including Bella, Shaheizy Sam, Faizal Tahir, Khairul, Ryan Bakery and Sofyank, who presented the awards to the deserving winners.
Mesmerising performances by Aina Abdul, Naim Daniel, Faizal, Aisha Retno, Sarah Suhairi, Alfie Zumi and Amir Jahari dazzled and excited viewers.
The awards show was hosted by actors and actresses Che Puan Sarimah Ibrahim and Janna Nick, while the Red Carpet event held at 8.30pm was hosted by social media influencer Ceddy Ang and actress Ain Edruce.
The backstage interviews were handled by former beauty and fashion creator nominee Eima Safuan and Daniel Fong.
Among the VIPs present at the event were Media Prima Bhd group chairman, Datuk Seri Dr Syed Hussian Aljunid; Media Prima Group managing director, Rafiq Razali, and New Straits Times Press (NSTP) group managing editor, Datuk Ahmad Zaini Kamaruzzaman.