TikTok continues to discover extra methods to share income with creators, this time by way of a brand new ‘Creativity Program’, which it’s launching in beta with chosen creators to start with.
Various from the present Creator Fund, TikTok’s Creativity Program goals to reward creators for posting longer movies, with solely content material longer than a minute in size eligible for funding.
As per TikTok:
“To be eligible for the Creativity Program Beta, users will need to be at least 18 years old, meet the minimum follower and video view requirements, and have an account in good standing. To start earning, creators must create and publish high-quality, original content longer than one minute. Creators will have access to an updated dashboard to view video eligibility, estimated revenue, and video performance metrics and analytics.”
That’s a shift from TikTok’s conventional, short-form method, and it might be that by increasing the size of movies, that offers TikTok extra leeway to higher monetize by enhanced engagement.
However exterior of those particulars, the total course of is pretty imprecise, at the least at this stage. TikTok says that the brand new system is not going to re-route cash from advertisements, and that payouts will likely be primarily based on ‘qualified views and RPM’.
“Creators already enrolled in the TikTok Creator Fund can switch to the Creativity Program, and those that are not enrolled can apply to the new program once available. Creators currently enrolled in the TikTok Creator Fund can choose to switch to the Creativity Program Beta.”
TikTok’s Creator Fund, which sees creators drawing from a set pool of funds, has been criticized for its fluctuating payouts, and even declining funding, regardless of creator view counts growing. Primarily, the static funding mannequin doesn’t actually work as a dependable, recurring income, which has seen some creators trying to different platforms as an alternative.
YouTube is the important thing winner on this entrance. YouTube’s Companion Program has a well-established income share course of in place, whereas it’s additionally now testing its new Shorts funding program, which can see all Shorts advert income shared with eligible creators, primarily based on view counts.
It’s too early to inform how efficient that program will likely be, however a extra direct line of income share, from advertisements to creators, implies that as advert earnings will increase, creators earn more money, versus having a set pool of cash that doesn’t shift.
That looks like a greater, extra sustainable approach to go, however as famous, evidently TikTok’s new Creativity Program isn’t transferring in-line with that course of. TikTok hasn’t gone into specifics, but it surely’s hoping that this will likely be a greater answer than the present course of.
And it wants to enhance right here. If TikTok can’t present higher income share choices for creators, extra of them will finally prioritize different platforms as an alternative, and as Reels and Shorts turn into extra fashionable choices, they provide important attain potential in their very own proper, which may see TikTok lose market share.
If Meta or YouTube look to signal high stars to unique offers, that might be an enormous blow to the app, whereas TikTok can also be preventing for its very survival within the US, amid ongoing questions about its linkage to the CCP.
As such, it wants this new program to work. We’ll preserve you up to date on any progress.
TikTok’s Creativity Program Beta will initially be accessible to creators by invite-only after which turn into accessible to all eligible US creators within the coming months.