Despite being the most popular app of the moment, TikTok is not without its own challenges. One of the most persistent obstacles that TikTok, even with its amassed fame, continues to struggle with is offering its creators a progressive monetization pathway. As such, the app continues to explore more ways to share revenue with its top stars, this time introducing a new ‘Creativity Program’ that it’s launching in beta with selected creators.
Very Creative
Varying from its current Creator Fund, TikTok’s Creativity Program aims to reward creators for posting longer videos, with only content longer than a minute eligible for funding. As TikTok explains:
“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 traditional, short-form approach, and it could be that by expanding the length of videos, that gives TikTok more leeway to better monetize through enhanced engagement. Outside of these details, the full process is fairly vague, at least at this stage. TikTok says its new system will not reroute money from ads, and that payouts will be based on ‘qualified views and RPM’.
TikTok’s Creator Fund, which sees creators draw from a set pool of funds, has been criticized for its fluctuating payouts, and even declining funding, despite creator view counts increasing. Essentially, the static funding model just can’t be a reliable revenue source for creators eyeing the long run, which has seen some of them jump to other platforms instead. YouTube has always been a winner on this front, with its Partner Program being a well-established revenue share process, while it’s also now testing a new Shorts funding program, which’ll see all Shorts ad revenue shared with eligible creators, based on views.
It’s too early to tell how effective YouTube’s new program will be, but a higher line of direct revenue sharing means that ad income increases, meaning that creators also make more money. That seems like a more sustainable way to go. However, TikTok’s new Creativity Program isn’t moving in line with that process. TikTok hasn’t shared in-depth details just yet, but it’s hoping that this will be a better solution than its current monetization model.
The Wrap
TikTok needs monetary improvements. If it can’t provide better revenue options to its creators, more of them will eventually eye other platforms, and as Reels and Shorts become more popular, they offer significant reach potential in their own right, which could see TikTok further lose market share. If Meta or YouTube look to sign top stars to exclusive deals, that could deal a huge blow to TikTok, which is currently fighting for survival in the US as we speak. TikTok needs this.
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