TikTok today announced that its revamped Creator Fund has increased total creator revenue by more than 250% within the past six months. The fund, which was created a year ago and will eventually replace TikTok's original $1 billion creator fund, is expected to exit beta in the coming weeks, the company said. TikTok also announced that its LIVE Subscription monetization tool has been renamed to “Subscription” and will soon be expanded to non-LIVE creators.
At launch, the revamped Creator was called the Creativity Program. This program is now out of beta and has been renamed to the “Creator Rewards Program.” Unlike the original Creator Fund, the new program rewards creators for longer content, similar to how it rewards users who create videos longer than one minute. TikTok says that since it rolled out long-form videos, users are spending 50% of their time watching long-form content, and the number of viewers of long-form videos has increased by nearly 40% over the past six months.
The revamped fund was created in response to complaints from creators that TikTok's previous model paid them poorly, with some creators saying they made a few dollars for videos that garnered millions of views. . When TikTok first launched the revamped fund, it estimated that creators could earn more than 20 times what they were previously making on TikTok.
TikTok is trying to compete with YouTube by publishing longer videos, but it doesn't offer the same payouts as the Google-owned platform. YouTube, which shares ad revenue with creators, paid out $30 billion over three years. TikTok's new Creator Fund aims to appease creators and encourage them to post longer videos on TikTok as well as YouTube.
As for the redesigned subscription service, TikTok will give non-LIVE creators new ways to engage with their audience through exclusive content and perks. TikTok will initially make it available to creators by invitation, but eligible creators will be able to sign up to gain access in the coming weeks.
TikTok is expanding its tools to allow creators to reward subscribers not just for LIVEs but also for videos and LIVEs. Creators will be able to post exclusive videos that only subscribers can view. Users who subscribe to a creator will see a subscriber badge next to their name when posting comments on videos or during LIVEs. TikTok says more benefits will be available once the feature is fully rolled out.
TikTok also announced that it is upgrading its Creator Portal education hub to Creator Academy to provide creators with the latest resources, courses, articles, and insights. The upgraded hub is currently being tested and will be available in seven different languages in the coming weeks, with more to come.