TikTok to launch a $200 million fund to pay creators
We’re living through an age where TikTok teens rapidly ascend to bonafide celebrities, to compensate for their talent, TikTok has announced a $200 million creators fund.
The fund will offer cash to content creators who “are seeking opportunities to foster a livelihood” using the app, a TikTok spokesperson told The Verge.
The new fund will pay creators directly for making video, rather than creators relying on live streams to monetize their content. Those who receive funding will be given regular payments over the coming years. TikTok are yet to specify how many creators will be eligible for the fund, how often payments will be made and to what sum the creators can earn.
“Through the TikTok Creator Fund, our creators will be able to realize additional earnings that reflect the time, care, and dedication they put into creatively connecting with an audience that’s inspired by their ideas,” Vanessa Pappas, general manager of TikTok, shared.
As TikTok veers towards total domination, it’s a means for them to guarantee their talent stay loyal to the platform. As The Verge points out, when Vine was at its peak, many of its content creators switched over to YouTube as it gave them the freedom to monetize their output in a way that Vine couldn’t.
With TikTok curating who receives funding, they’re able to avoid the ramifications that YouTube has faced with problematic content creators earning money of monetization.
It may also help sweeten the app’s relationship with the US government, which has considered banning the app over national security and privacy concerns.
Earlier this month, for the first time Trump’s allies have suggested TikTok could become collateral damage.
Speaking on Fox News Monday night, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo admitted the U.S. was considering banning TikTok and other Chinese social media apps over security concerns.
“With respect to Chinese apps on people’s cell phones, I can assure you the United States will get this one right too,” Pompeo said “I don’t want to get out in front of the president, but it’s something we’re looking at.”
Pompeo had a warning for TikTok users: Use it only “if you want your private information in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.”
TikTok has already been banned in India, the market with the biggest number of users outside China, in what appears to be a knee-jerk reaction to the June 15 confrontation with Chinese military in the remote Karakoram mountain border region.
This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.