The second creator box for TikTok opens to more users starting today.
First announced in February, the program has only been available so far. Called the Creation Program, the fund aims to pay popular users for their content, but only if they meet certain requirements. The wider availability is now in line with the original TikTok Creators Fund, which promised to pay out $1 billion over three years to the app’s creators.
The requirements for the Creative Fund indicate a slight shift in TikTok’s priorities. In particular, creators need to create videos longer than a minute in order to be eligible to earn money through the fund. Users also need to have at least 10,000 followers and 100,000 original views of their videos in the last 30 days to be eligible.
The original Creator’s Fund is still there, but it’s not clear what will happen now that the three years are so close to the end of the new program. TikTok said that participants in the original box can go into the creativity program but won’t be able to go back again.
Despite the large sum of money allocated to the original fund, TikTokers have repeatedly said that they did not earn much through the program and that viral videos only made a few dollars. At its launch in February, TikTok said the new fund would “generate higher revenue” for participants but did not provide specific numbers.
Low payments from platforms have been a constant complaint for content creators, and TikTok has introduced a plethora of monetization features for popular content creators in turn. In March, the platform announced that creators would be able to push some of their content, including videos as long as 20 minutes. Live broadcasting is also becoming increasingly pivotal: content creators can earn tips during live videos and choose to target older audiences.