TikTok’s Growth Hacking Includes Paywalled Video

At the end of last year, it felt like creator funds were a thing of the past, as companies such as YouTube shifted to other initiatives, such as ad-revenue sharing, and shut down funds that made payouts for viral videos. But that’s not the case at TikTok. As I reported in a story on Monday, the short-form video app is working on a new version, internally dubbed Creator Fund 2.0, which could launch in the U.S. as soon as next month.

TikTok’s initial $1 billion creator fund was one of the biggest, but many participants criticized the effort because their individual earnings tended to be small. This backlash spurred TikTok to begin work on Creator Fund 2.0, which aims to offer higher payouts but limit the number of creators who can join, according to people familiar with the project. TikTok leaders have discussed setting the minimum number of followers to join the new fund at 100,000, much higher than the 10,000 followers required to participate now.