TikTok is shutting down the original way for creators to make money on the social media platform.
In 2020, TikTok announced the Creator Fund. The company announced it would pay out $1 billion from a pool to creators of popular content. People have flocked to this platform to make millions of dollars, but most people find that the income they get from this fund is very small, sometimes just a few dollars for millions of plays. I realized that it is equivalent.
And in February, the company announced its Creativity Program, a new way for creators to earn money on the platform. The creativity program was clearly marketed as a more reliable, long-term way to make money on TikTok, and it marked the end of the Creator Fund.According to reports The VergeTikTok confirmed its plans today, announcing that it will be closing the Creator Fund and moving all eligible creators into the Creativity Program.
TikTok spokeswoman Maria Jung said the Creator Fund will be shut down in several countries on December 16th. The company has not confirmed how much of its $1 billion fund it has actually disbursed since its founding several years ago.
TikTok spokeswoman Maria Jung said creators in the US, UK, Germany and France will no longer be able to monetize their content through the original fund. TikTokers in Italy and Spain are not affected by this change.
What's interesting is that the rest of the creativity program encourages creators to create longer videos on the platform. The company says that to earn money as part of its creativity program, “a creator must create and publish high-quality original content that is longer than one minute.” This is an interesting requirement for a platform that has become more popular than short-form videos.
Creators who are already enrolled in the TikTok Creator Fund can switch to the creativity program, and unenrolled creators can apply when the new program becomes available. Creators currently enrolled in the TikTok Creator Fund can choose to switch to the Creativity Program Beta. To earn money, creators must create and publish their own high-quality, original content that is longer than one minute. Creators will be able to access an updated dashboard to view video eligibility, estimated revenue, and video performance metrics and analytics. With the safety of our community in mind, all videos in the Creative Program must follow our Community Guidelines.
TikTok's announcement comes as competing platforms such as Instagram's Reels and YouTube's Shorts products continue to grow in popularity as well. We'll have to see how monetization changes across platforms for creators, but TikTok is certainly looking to capture YouTube's industry-leading monetization capabilities here.
