• by Colin Kirkland , November 7, 2023

TikTok’s creator fund, valued at upwards of $2 billion, will officially come to an end on December 16 for creators based in the U.S., the U.K., France and Germany. 

Originally announced in 2020, the fund was pitched as a monetization opportunity for short-form content creators who will now be transitioned to TikTok’s alternative option, the Creativity Program.

The Creator Fund consisted of a three-year commitment to paying out $1 billion to creators for viral video uploads. The fund promised micro influencers with at least 10,000 followers and 100,000 views over 30 days their portion of the pot. However, creators have complained about their payouts being meager, with most earning no more than a few dollars per video.

It is unclear if TikTok paid out the entire fund to the qualified creators. 

In February of this year, TikTok announced the Creativity Program, a separate monetization opportunity for creators on the platform. The company said the new program would lead to higher payouts –– as much as 20 times the original payouts –– as part of a reworked formula. 

To better compete with longform video leader YouTube, TikTok made it mandatory for creators to upload videos longer than one minute, and with at least 1,000 views, in order to qualify for the Creativity Program. The company hasn’t provided any information on a specific pool of money from which it is paying eligible creators. 

“The Creativity Program was developed based on the learnings and feedback we’ve gained from the previous Creator Fund,” the spokesperson said in an email statement.

The Creativity Program is available to select US creators on an invitation-only basis, but with the end of the creator fund, TikTok will likely be opening the new program to all creators shortly.