The fund sets aside $6 million to pay creators of effects on TikTok (aesthetic filters, mini-games, and more) that regularly go viral on the platform and become trends in their own right. The Effect Creator Rewards program, first announced in May, has a lower set of eligibility requirements and an updated payment structure and will be open to more regions, TikTok announced today in a blog entry.
First, the fund is opening up to creators in more than a dozen new regions, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, and the Philippines. The requirements to join are also changing: previously, creators needed to have 500,000 videos published that used their effects. Now, Tik Tok requires Effect creators will have five filters published, and at least three of them will be used in 1,000 videos. This could help budding effects creators with moderate success join without needing a very popular presence.
The program is the first pool of money TikTok has created to pay effects designers; Previously, creators created filters essentially for free. But the payment structure left a lot to be desired: an effect used on 500,000 videos in the first 90 days after publication would only earn the creator $700, plus an additional $140 for every additional 100,000 videos in the same time period. That’s $1,400 for a filter used on a million videos (TikTok caps earnings at $14,000 for a single effect and $50,000 per month per creator).
More creators will likely be able to monetize under the program’s new rules: TikTok is reducing the initial monetization base, requiring 200,000 videos to start making money. The payout rate will also change to be variable rather than a flat fee: TikTok says the amount will depend on “certain factors, such as the region where the video was created.” Whether that will end up making creators more or less money remains to be seen.
