Creators have mixed feelings about TikTok's new monetization program

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TikTok is revamping its creator payment system. With a new creativity program that encourages users to create videos longer than 1 minute, the platform estimates creators can earn more than 20 times what she previously earned on TikTok. This is great news for chatty TikTokers, but for other creators, TikTok payments weren't all that useful to begin with.

Starting December 16th, creators in the US, UK, France, and Germany will be transitioned into TikTok's Creativity Program instead of the existing Creator Fund. Despite their confusingly similar names, the two programs are separate. His previous $1 billion creator fund allowed eligible creators to get paid based on the number of views their videos received. However, the platform quickly surpassed the $1 billion mark, allowing creators to post videos that garnered millions of views and still receive enough compensation to buy them a coffee. . $1 billion may sound like an immeasurable amount, but YouTube, which distributes ad revenue, paid out $30 billion to creators over three years.

Considering how meager payments to the Creator Fund are, TikTok pivoted to a new idea: the Creativity Program. The biggest difference between the two strategies is that the creativity program only allows users to monetize their content that is longer than one minute.

Amanda Gorka, creator of Swell Entertainment, told TechCrunch. Gorka's main platform is his YouTube, where he posts long commentary videos about media and culture. But on TikTok, she's noticed that some creators who are drawn to shorter clips are trying to make their videos longer with mixed results.

“I'm finding that it's enriching storytime,” she said, referring to the storytime style of TikTok, where people share stories from their lives. It reminds her of a similar phenomenon that happened to her on YouTube a few years ago. Creators realized that YouTube's algorithm prioritized longer content, so naturally they started creating longer videos. While some people are happy to watch her hour-long videos depicting Glee's most suspenseful moments, not all creators are able to transition to longer videos without sacrificing their ability to keep viewers entertained. there is no.

Lindsey Lee Lugrin, CEO of FYPM, a Glassdoor for influencers, researched how Instagram followers were reacting to TikTok's monetization changes. She told TechCrunch that her own research shows that some creators who produce longer videos report earning 10 times more in creativity programs than in creator funds. . Some people gave up on making money directly on TikTok a long time ago and were tired of even trying new programs. Some felt that the requirements to participate in the program were too high. To be eligible, a TikToker must be over the age of 18 and have at least 10,000 followers and 100,000 views in the past 30 days.

Another key issue with creativity programs is that creators can only monetize their videos with royalty-free music. Trends on TikTok often revolve around copyrighted music, from Olivia Rodrigo's new album to Kate Bush's throwback songs. So, while this may be a limitation for some creators, they may do so because TikTok is a platform that makes more money from videos that don't feature licensed music.

“We developed the Creativity Program based on learnings and feedback from the Creators Fund. We explore new features to further enrich the TikTok experience, enhance existing features, and listen to feedback from our community. We continue to listen and learn,” TikTok spokesperson Maria John said. via email to TechCrunch.

As more creators join the creativity program, it will become clearer whether TikTok's own claims about the opportunity for creators to make more money are true. For better or worse, the creator likely won't see a major negative change in his income from TikTok…but unfortunately, that's because they aren't making much from the platform as it stands.