TikTok's Creator Fund to cease operations, shifting focus to a new monetization program

TikTok $1 billion creator fund, launched in 2020, will halt operations on December 16, 2023, impacting content creators in the US, UK, Germany, and France by eliminating their opportunity to monetize content through this fund.

The creator fund's purpose was to distribute $1 billion over three years to popular content creators on TikTok. Despite the platform's wide reach, the fund faced criticism from influencers and creators for its low payouts, which often translated to only a few dollars for millions of views. TikTok has not disclosed whether the entire $1 billion was allocated and has remained silent about the fund's status.

In response to the criticism, TikTok launched a new monetization initiative in February 2023, called the Creativity Program. This program deviates from TikTok's typical short video format, calling for creators to make videos longer than one minute. The Creativity Program's earnings are determined by views and other engagement metrics, not a set payout. Eligible creators in the affected countries have been encouraged to participate in this program, where they have the potential to earn up to 20 times more than the original fund. This also gives us a glimpse of the platform's future focus on longer content, which is not typically its characteristic.