Being part of TikTok’s creators fund is apparently a lot less profitable than it sounds, even for some of the app’s biggest stars. In recent days, some high-profile TikTokkers have taken the unusual step of disclosing how much – or in this case, how little – they are earning from the fund.
TikTok is still relatively early in its monetization capabilities for creators. Instead of a revenue-sharing deal like the YouTube Partner Program, TikTok pays its top stars out of a creator fund. Launched in 2020, the fund started at $200 million, and TikTok said last year it was increasing the fund to $1 billion over the next three years in the US. participants can expect to win.
But according to one prominent streamer, most creators are earning very little. Last week, Hank Green, who has over 6 million followers on TikTok, shared a video on YouTube titled “So… TikTok sucks.” In the 24-minute video, he details his background on TikTok creators and estimates that he currently earns around 2.5 cents per 1,000 views on the platform — a fraction of what he earns on YouTube and about half of what he previously earned. TikTok.
The problem, as he explains, is that TikTok offers an increasing number of creators a share of a “static pool of money” that is not tied to TikTok’s revenue or its skyrocketing popularity. The result is that each creator earns less and less, even as TikTok is more successful. “Because of the way TikTok shares a lot of audience among many creators, this ends up being less than a dollar a day for most people in the creator fund,” he said.
Green, whose share of the creator’s fund was previously praised by TikTok at a corporate event blog postsaid that creator funds aren’t bad in and of themselves, but that TikTok’s current deal is preventing creators from properly supporting themselves.
His comments prompted others to share their frustrations with TikTok. Safwan AhmedMia, who passes by SuperSafe on TikTok, he shared Green’s video along with a screenshot of his TikTok earnings: £112.04 (about $151). “This is how much I’ve earned from the TikTok Creator Fund since April 2021, with over 25 million views in that time,” he wrote.
Then Jimmy Donaldson, the streamer known as Mr. Beast, shared your earnings on TikTok. As per the screenshot, he earned just under $15,000 from the app, with daily earnings ranging from $18 to $32 in January. Like The information points, which costs less than $10,000 a year on TikTok, despite its estimate that it got “over a billion views” on the app. That number is particularly low considering Donaldson is YouTube’s biggest earner and has made $54 million on the platform in 2021.
It’s unclear how much Green, AhmedMia and Donaldson’s experience mirrors that of other fund creators. But TikTok has not offered an alternative explanation as to why its creators are earning so little. “The Creator Fund is one of the many ways creators can make money from TikTok,” a TikTok spokesperson said in a statement, pointing to the company. breeders market, which helps match content creators with potential sponsors. “We continue to listen and seek feedback from our community of creators and improve our resources to improve the experience for program participants.”
It is true that the creator fund is not the only way for TikTok stars to make money from the app. The app has a tipping feature, although it’s not yet available to everyone. Creators also regularly partner with brands and these offers can be worthwhile. millions for the most influential users of the app. But closing a deal with a big brand takes time and effort, and that option might not be available to lesser-known creators. And because TikTok doesn’t have a revenue-sharing feature, the fund is now the only way creators can get paid directly by the company.
Elsewhere, the app is testing other monetization features for creators. It is experimenting with subscription features, which would allow creators to effectively move some of their content behind a paywall. The features appear to be at an early stage, and the company hasn’t said when, or even if, the feature might be more widely available.
Are you on TikTok’s creators fund or do you have a tip to share about how it distributes the funds? Email me at karissa.bell [at] engagement with.
All products recommended by Ploonge are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.