Starting December 16, TikTok will officially shut down its billion-dollar Creator Fund in the US, UK, Germany, and France. However, creators from Italy and Spain will not be affected by the closure.
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TikTok Invests Billion Dollars to Creators
In 2020, TikTok created the Creator Fund as a way to support TikTokers by paying them $1 billion within three years of making content. The premise of the project is to provide fund for micro-influencers that have at least 10,000 followers and has accumulated around 100,000 views within the last 30 days to get monetized.
Despite the big promise, many influencers and content creators claimed that it was not really the case for them. Many of the qualified creators stated that they only received low payouts despite having millions of views. Some also compared that they ear TikTok has not yet confirmed whether the company has paid out all of the $1 billion.
Moreover, the Creator Fund also sparked controversy after Forbes reported that the company has been storing the creators' data on servers in China as opposed to the promise that it would be stored in the US.
TikTok Shifts to New Program
Early this year, TikTok launched its Creativity Program which will also help creators to make money on the app but with different qualifications and measures. The program was recently expanded to Brazil, France, Germany, Japan, Korea, and the UK, after months of testing it in the US.
Like the Creator Fund, the qualifications remain the same from the followers, minimum views, and age restriction. However, what makes it different is that eligible creators are promised to earn up to 20 times more than the offered amount by the Creator Fund. This is possible as the earnings will now be based on views and other engagement metrics.
Creators from the US, UK, Germany, and France who are part of the previous program are allowed to transition to the Creativity Program. Meanwhile, TikTok assured that the company will retain its commitment to provide a "robust ecosystem of monetization offerings to the content creators."
Related Article: TikTok Expands Creativity Program Beta Outside US
