TikTok is shutting down its $1 billion creator fund

TikTok’s $1 billion creator fund is set to shut down on December 16, 2023, as announced by the company.

Effective December 16, the Creator Fund will cease operations in the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Germany. Creators currently enrolled in the Creator Fund will have the option to transition to the Creativity Program.

Introduced in 2020, the creator fund initially pledged to disburse $1 billion over a three-year span to individuals generating viral content on the platform. However, it has faced persistent criticism from creators due to low payouts, with some reporting meager earnings for videos that garnered millions of views.

In February of this year, TikTok introduced a revamped monetization approach designed to offer more substantial compensation to popular creators: the Creativity Program. Unlike the original fund, the Creativity Program mandates that creators produce videos longer than one minute, a notable departure for a platform initially known for short clips. Additionally, the new program bases earnings on views and other engagement metrics instead of a fixed pool of money for payments.

Since the introduction of the Creativity Program, TikTok has been inviting eligible creators to make the switch to the Creativity Program. To qualify for the Creativity Program, creators must be at least 18 years old and have a minimum of 10,000 followers and at least 100,000 views in the past 30 days. Eligible creators who post high-quality, original content exceeding one minute in length have the potential to earn up to 20 times the amount previously offered by the Creator Fund, according to TikTok.

The Creativity Program forms an integral component of TikTok’s array of monetization resources, complemented by offerings such as LIVE subscriptions and TikTok Pulse. Additionally, the platform provides monetization options like tips and gifts, as well as a Series feature that permits eligible creators to share content accessible through a payment gateway.

According to a recent report, TikTok users are shifting their spending from physical products to in-stream contributions for content creators, a trend that might indicate a larger move towards in-app sales. During Q3, TikTok users sent over $250 million in digital gifts to live-streamers within the app, a development that has the potential to increase TikTok’s revenue through in-app sales.