TikTok is shutting down its Creator Fund.
This is devastating news for anyone who makes money off the app, which includes most social media creators. According to research from Epidemic Sound, 30 percent of creators said TikTok is the top platform for generating income, followed by YouTube (25.8 percent), Facebook (16.5 percent), Twitter (13.1 percent), and, at the bottom of the list with just 7.1 percent, Instagram.
SEE ALSO: TikTok announces a new way to pay its creatorsThe app will formally shut down the fund — which pays creators with at least 10,000 followers and at least 100,000 views on their videos in the last 30 days — on Dec. 16, according to a Monday report from Fortune. The news isn't entirely surprising: When TikTok first launched the Creator Fund in 2020, it said it would only be paying creators for three years.
A TikTok spokesperson said in a statement to TIME that the company is committed to creating "the best experience possible on TikTok and provide a robust ecosystem of monetization offerings to creators."
"Part of our efforts and ongoing commitment to provide requires us to evolve products and apply resources elsewhere to support creators best and explore new offerings," the spokesperson told TIME. TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Mashable.
TikTok's creativity fund is still around through its Creativity Program, though. It pays approved creators who make videos longer than a minute. But unlike the Creator Fund, where you make money off all your videos, the Creativity Program only lets you make money on those longer-form videos.
Looks like TikTok just took its next step into long-form content.
