In the summer of 2020, TikTok set aside $200 million to pay U.S. creators in what it called a “creator fund.” This wasn’t a common practice at the time. The more seasoned platform YouTube paid creators by distributing funds through its partner program, established in 2007, which enables revenue sharing on the advertisements that play on creators’ uploads. But over the last few years, as every social media company has tried to compete with TikTok’s growing popularity, these platforms all created their own creator programs: YouTube established a $100 million creator fund for Shorts, Snapchat is offering cash prizes for submissions to Spotlight challenges and Instagram is showering Reels creators with gamified cash bonuses.
