TikTok launches Effect Creator Rewards, a new fund that pays creators for popular AR effects

TikTok is introducing a new way for creators to monetize their content on its platform. The company announced today that it’s launching a new “Effect Creator Rewards” fund that will reward creators for the effects they make through the app’s AR development platform, Effect House.

The $6 million fund will offer payments to creators based on users’ engagement with their effects. At launch, for every effect that’s used in 500,000 unique videos within 90 days of being published, a creator will collect $700 USD. For every 100,000 videos published thereafter within the same 90 days, creators will collect an additional $140. TikTok did not comment on its plans for the fund once the $6 million runs out.

A spokesperson for TikTok told TechCrunch that the new fund is available in the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom.

“When we launched the Effect House beta – complete with development tools, guides, and learning resources — our goal was to equip designers, developers and creators with all they needed to build dynamic Community Effects for TikTok’s global community,” the company wrote in a blog post. “Our investment in Effect Creator Rewards furthers that commitment, expanding opportunities for effect creators and helping support and reward their passion and creativity.”

Today’s announcement comes two weeks after TikTok opened up its revamped creator fund, called the “Creativity Program Beta,” to all eligible creators in the United States, France and Brazil. The new program is designed to generate higher revenue and unlock more real-world opportunities for creators. To be eligible for the program, creators must be at least 18 years of age and have at least 10,000 followers and at least 100,000 views in the last 30 days.

TikTok says the rewards formula for the Creativity Program Beta has been formulated to offer a higher average gross revenue for qualified video views. The company’s Creator Fund launched in 2020 with a $1 billion commitment over three years, but has been criticized by creators who have complained about low payouts. The new Creativity Program Beta is TikTok’s answer to these complaints.

Once enrolled in the new program, creators will not be able to revert back to the Creator Fund. TikTok did not say whether the Creativity Program will replace the Creator Fund altogether, but TikTok will likely scrap the Creator Fund once the Creativity Program launches more widely.

Effect Creator Rewards and the Creativity Program are the latest additions to TikTok’s suite of monetization tools, which includes LIVE subscriptions and TikTok Pulse. The company also has tips and gifts monetization features. A few months ago, TikTok also introduced a new feature called “Series” that allows eligible creators to post content behind a paywall.