TikTok is discontinuing its Creator Fund and steering users to the Creativity Program

TikTok only launched its Creator Fund a few years ago, but is already killing it off in favor of a new monetization scheme that arrived earlier this year. "Starting December 16, 2023, the Creator Fund will be discontinued in the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Germany," a spokesperson told Engadget in a statement. "All creators currently enrolled in the Creator Fund can upgrade to the Creativity Program." 

The Creativity Program emphasizes longer content, with a required minimum video length of at least one minute (TikTok now allows videos up to 30 minutes long). The company said it wants to create "the best possible experience" on the platform with the new system, but longer videos also help TikTok sell more ads. The main benefit for streamers is that it pays up to 20 times the amount offered by the Creator Fund, according to the company. 

"We developed the Creativity Program based on the learnings and feedback from the Creator Fund, and we'll continue listening and learning from our community as we explore new features and enhance existing ones to further enrich the TikTok experience," TikTok said. The Creator Fund will continue to be available for users in Spain and Italy, at least for now.

The Creator Fund was unveiled in 2020 with an initial commitment of $200 million to be paid out to top streamers. Soon after, the company said it would support hundreds of thousands of creators with over $2 billion in funding over the next three years. 

However, it got off to a rough start after top users complained that they weren't receiving very much money. Last year, streamer Hank Green shared that he made about 2.5 cents per 1,000 views on the platform — a fraction of his YouTube earnings and about half of what he earned on TikTok prior to the fund.

We designed the Creativity Program based on [creator] feedback, to encourage creators to create high-quality, original content, generate higher revenue potential, and open doors to more real-world opportunities. The program offers higher cash incentives, giving creators the potential to earn up to 20 times the amount previously offered by the Creator Fund.

The Creativity Program, by contrast, arrived in February this year as an invite-only system before opening up to all eligible creators. It's still in beta, but any Creator Fund users can join, provided they're at least 18 years old and have at least 10,000 followers and 100,000 video views in the last 30 days, along with a US-based account (or account in one of the other eligible countries). After switching to the Creativity Program, users are removed automatically from the Creator Fund.

Some creators have embraced the Creativity Program, according to a report from Insider. Streamers with subscriber numbers varying from a half million to several million have seen payouts ranging in the low thousands to nearly $100,000 per month, "a complete 180" from what they were seeing before, according to one creator. 

Streamers may like the longer format and extra revenue, but users may need to some to adjust. In a recent TikTok internal survey, nearly 50 percent of users said videos over a minute in length were "stressful," and a third of users watched videos online at double speed, according to a Wired report from earlier this year.

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