The Great TikTok-Reels-Shorts Content Creator Rip-off
Billion-dollar platforms can't, or won't, get it right
“The strike is to send a message. The business models of these apps, they have us out here overworking and being underpaid.” - Kaelyn Kastle, 24 (Collab Crib)
Kaelyn Kastle was one of several young black TikTok content creators that Taylor Lorenz and Laura Zonosa interviewed for their recent New York Times piece “Are Black Creators Really On Strike From TikTok?”. As the article points out, it’s a protest more than an actual strike to make the point that black content creators set many of the trends that others profit from:
“We are being exploited, and that’s the core issue Black folks have always had in terms of labor,” Mr. Louis said. “These millions of likes, that should all translate to something. How do we get real money, power and proper compensation we deserve?”
“According to Li Jin, the founder of Atelier, a venture firm that invests in the creator economy, these tensions stem from systemic inequalities in the online creator industry. “The issue here is ownership,” she said. “The worker class is disenfranchised and does not have ownership over the means of creation and distribution.”
“More creators, especially those from marginalized groups, are looking at the skyrocketing valuations of technology companies and reconsidering their relationships with certain platforms.”
TikTok isn’t the only platform guilty of not paying the very people whose creative work draws users to their app, but it’s the most popular when it comes to short-form video. And for a company worth an estimated $50 Billion, it is astoundingly cheap when it comes to sharing it with its thousands of influencers and content creators. For example, Preston Seo - 1.6 million followers - earns $9 to $38 per day from TikTok’s Creator Fund, while Kid Myke - 2 million followers - earned $23.97 per day based on interviews conducted by BusinessInsider. And not every content creator is entitled to even that small amount of money. They have to have at least 10,000 followers and have generated at least 100,000 views over the past 30 days to qualify.
Instagram Reels has announced that a bonus program is coming but they haven’t paid their short-form content creators anything as of yet, nor will they be eligible for a share of ad revenue. Snapchat’s TikTok clone called Spotlight has announced a Creator’s Fund but its Terms of Service has a provision which states in bold print and all caps that “ONLY A SMALL PERCENTAGE OF CREATORS SUBMITTING SNAPS TO SPOTLIGHT WILL RECEIVE PAYMENTS.” Again, no ad revenue share.
Then there’s YouTube’s new short form video platform - Shorts. YouTube has announced that Shorts’ content creators will receive NO share of any ad revenue, instead opting to mimic the highly subjective (and low paying) Creator Fund approach used by each of the other short form video platforms.
The recent move towards monetizing at least some content creators on these billion-dollar platforms has only come about out of fear of losing users to TikTok, and even worse, loss of ad revenue because the brands go where the users are. Because these four platforms are owned by giant companies - Google (YouTube), Bytedance (TikTok), Tencent (SnapChat), and Facebook (Instagram) - it’s not surprising that they are mimicking each other in terms of a monetization model; i.e., payouts from a Creators Fund limited in both amount and scope. That model is patently unfair as the selection process is subjective and non-transparent, and many aren’t paid anything at all.
Duel’s 30/70 Ad Revenue Model
Duel™ has been designed from the beginning to be the first short form video challenge app dedicated to privacy and transparency in data monetization. All ad revenue will be split 30/70 with 70% going to the content creators based on a formula that will be 100% transparent to everyone. Every user who joins the platform and opts-in to the data and revenue share will have a clear path to getting paid. Every influencer, from Nano-level up, will be eligible for their own brand sponsorships and a variable share of overall platform revenue based on a formula that our Influencer Advisory Board will develop.
A mobile app should be a cooperative arrangement of mutual profitability versus the current Baron and Serf model, where Data barons (Google, Facebook, Bytedance, Tencent, etc.) grant free space to Content Creator serfs to produce, and the barons keep all the profits.
Well, Duel has a message for the Data Barons.
Serfs Up!