TikTok videos of under 60 seconds long will no longer receive compensation from TikTok as the platform is ending its $1 billion Creator Fund and is instead inviting creators to join its ‘Creativity Program’, launched earlier this year.
That’s according to The Verge, which reported on Tuesday (November 8) that the Creator Fund will no longer be available, effective December 16.
This means that creators in the US, UK, Germany, and France will no longer have access to the original fund for monetizing their content, TikTok spokesperson Maria Jung reportedly told The Verge.
However, users in Italy and Spain will remain unaffected by the change.
Introduced in 2020, the Creator Fund was initially designed to distribute $1 billion over three years to creators producing viral content on the platform. Creators eligible for that program had to meet a minimum following threshold of 10,000 “authentic followers” and have accrued at least 100,000 authentic video views within a 30-day period.
A TikTok spokesperson told Forbes Australia: “The Creativity Program was developed based on the learnings and feedback we’ve gained from the previous Creator Fund.”
While TikTok did not specify the feedback regarding the previous Creator Fund, The Verge said some influencers and content creators have expressed dissatisfaction with the low payouts, often receiving only a few dollars for videos that garnered millions of views. TikTok has yet to confirm whether the full $1 billion has been disbursed.
TikTok rolled out the Creativity Program, a new monetization method, in February, seeking to provide higher payouts for popular creators. This program requires creators to produce videos longer than a minute, a departure from the app’s original focus on short clips.
Instead of a fixed fund, TikTok said the earnings under the Creativity Program would be determined by factors such as views and other engagement metrics.
Jung told The Verge that eligible creators who transition to the Creativity Program can potentially earn up to 20 times more than they were making through the original fund.
The discontinuation of TikTok’s original fund aligns with its initial three-year commitment and predetermined fund allocation. Creators in the US, UK, Germany, and France who were part of the original fund will have the option to migrate to the Creativity Program.
“As we continue developing new ways to reward creators and enrich the TikTok experience, we value the feedback and direct insights from our community to help inform our decisions,” a company spokesperson reportedly told Forbes Australia.
Similar to the Creator Fund, creators have to have more than 10,000 followers and at least 100,000 video views in the last 30 days to become eligible for the Creativity Program.
The development comes on the heels of TikTok’s new global deal with Distrokid to create “new revenue opportunities for independent artists.”
Under that deal, music distributed by DistroKid will be available across TikTok Music, CapCut, and in TikTok’s Commercial Music Library.
TikTok also has global distribution deals with Believe, Vydia and other music companies “fuel the pipeline of talent and artist-driven music” on its Commercial Music Library, the company said in May.
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