TikTok is Discontinuing Its $2 Billion USD Creator Fund and Introducing the New 'Creativity Program'

The revised monetization program is launching for creators by invitation only.

Getty Images

TikTok established the Creator Fund in 2020 to enable users to monetize their material. The Fund commenced with $200 million USD and has swiftly expanded over the previous three years to over $2 billion USD, from which creators have been compensated.

The platform has announced the discontinuation of the Creator Fund in favor of a new initiative called the Creativity Program. TikTok delineated the rules and conditions of the Creativity Program in a blog post announcement.

The Program will automatically replace the Fund starting December 16 in the US, UK, France, and Germany. Qualified creators will have the opportunity to "upgrade" to the beta version of the Program; however, once joined, they will be unable to revert to the Fund.

Payouts for the Program are anticipated to exceed those of the Fund on a per-view basis; nevertheless, the criteria for participation have been elevated. The Fund mandated that creators possess a minimum of 10,000 followers, a criterion that has been adopted by the Program. Creators must accumulate a minimum of 100,000 video views within the past 30 days and produce videos that are at least one minute in duration. Revenue is determined per 1,000 views, including view interaction and the "authenticity" of the watching account.

The Creativity Program is initiating with a $200 million USD budget, and during the beta phase, participation will be exclusively by invitation.

In additional technology news, OpenAI reports that ChatGPT reaches 100 million active users weekly.