TikTok is opening up a new monetization spigot for creators on the popular short-form video app.
The Chinese-owned app announced Series, a new way for creators to sell their stories as premium content. With the Series feature, available initially only to select creators, users can post Collections of premium content behind a paywall that viewers can purchase. Each individual Series can include up to 80 videos, each up to 20 minutes long, giving the TikTok community “a new, longer format to watch their favorite creators and content,” the company said.
TikTok creators can select the price for their Series. The content can be purchased via direct in-video links or through a creator’s profile page. The company noted that, like all content on TikTok, Series videos must adhere to its community guidelines standards.
According to TikTok, Series is currently available to select creators; in the coming months, the company will open up applications for others to enroll. For a limited time, creators will receive 100% of their Series earnings (after platform and processing fees), according to a TikTok rep; it’s unclear what the revenue split may be in the longer term. “As Series is in its early phase, right now we’re focused on building the product and hearing feedback from our creators to improve the product,” the TikTok spokesperson said.
Additional TikTok initiatives aimed at compensating creators include the Creator Fund, which pays creators of “innovative content” on the platform; the TikTok Creator Marketplace for brand and creator collaborations; and the recently announced Creativity Program Beta, currently an invitation-only program that pays creators of “high-quality, original content” longer than 1 minute a share of ad revenue.
TikTok is proceeding in business-as-usual fashion even as more governments are moving to ban the app, which some lawmakers perceive as endangering user privacy and national security given its ownership by Chinese internet giant ByteDance. In the U.S., legislation introduced in Congress would grant President Biden the authority to ban TikTok under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
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