After more than three years, TikTok has announced a major change to how it pays its creators, with the social media platform announcing it is shutting down its $2 billion Creator Fund.
The news was confirmed on Monday by a spokesperson for the company who spoke with NBC News.
A press release from the company in July 2020 shared that the fund was started to "help support ambitious creators who are seeking opportunities to foster a livelihood through their innovative content."
The money in the fund was then distributed to creators based on their content views.
The fund will officially be discontinued on Dec. 16 in the U.S., U.K., France, and Germany, according to Fortune.
Replacing the Creator Fund is the Creativity Program, announced by the company in a blog post in February.
"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. "As we continue developing new ways to reward creators and enrich the TikTok experience, we value the feedback and direct insights from our community to help inform our decisions."
According to the company, the new program will address several complaints that creators had about the fund.
TikTok says eligible creators can "earn up to 20 times the amount previously offered by the Creator Fund" through the Creativity Program.
To be eligible for the program, videos must be longer than a minute, earn at least 1,000 views, follow the platform's community guidelines, and more.
Creators interested in the program must be based in the U.S. and be over the age of 18 with more than 10,000 followers and at least 100,000 views in the last 30 days.
However, the program still appears to be in its beta, and it is unclear what TikTok plans to do with creators in other countries.
