TikTok under fire for how it pays creators

The Future. TikTok is facing the heat for its creator payment model. Although its $1 billion Creator Fund sounds generous, it’s a static fund, meaning that platform growth actually undermines creator earnings. In other words, when viewership goes up (which increases TikTok’s revenue), TikTok creators actually make less money. Now, high-profile creators like MrBeast and Hank Green are calling out TikTok… the platform may soon be forced to change its ways.

Creators unite
Top creators like MrBeast, Hank Green, and more are sharing their earnings from TikTok’s Creator Fund — and the numbers are surprisingly low.

• MrBeast, who has over 32 million fans and billions of views, tweeted stats showing he earned just $18.64 and $25.10 on January 17 and 18, respectively.
• Hank Green, who has more than 6 million TikTok followers, said he gets $0.02 for every 1,000 views on TikTok — a number that has gone down over time.
• Safwan AhmedMia, a TikToker with over 25 million views, posted that he received a mere £112.04 from the TikTok Creator Fund.

While it’s not a 1:1 comparison, YouTube pays creators with a more equitable, percentage-of-revenue model, which amounted to $30 billion between 2018 and 2021. And, YouTubers can make $1.00 for every 1,000 views, or nearly 50x more than on TikTok, based on Green’s earnings.

ScroogeTok
This revelation is troubling  for the creator economy — while TikTok has created new jobs and opportunities for thousands of creators, the platform appears to be hoarding its revenue instead of fairly sharing the earnings and profits with the creators that drove it.

As Hank Green outlines in his explainer video, if TikTok had increased its fund in proportion to its revenue growth, the Creator should be at least $6 billion by now. That 6x increase in revenue for creators could be life-changing for many, even allowing some creators to work full-time as TikTokers or start a business around their content.