TikTok has a new feature that will allow content creators to place videos behind a paywall, allowing them to further monetize their content.
Key Details
- TikTok’s latest feature allows creators to monetize their content by placing certain videos behind a paywall.
- The new feature is similar to those offered by Patreon and Onlyfans. The exclusive videos may also have extended play times.
- Known as Series, creators can set aside exclusive content for followers willing to pay. The exclusive videos can be up to 20 minutes long, double the length of current TikTok videos. Up to 80 videos can be included in a single Series.
- Creators are able to set video prices themselves. Viewers purchase access to the videos either through the creator’s profile or through links listed in the videos.
Why it’s news
Currently, creators on platforms like YouTube will use sites like Patreon or Onlyfans to post exclusive monetized content. TikTok is taking out the middle man by allowing viewers to pay for content directly on its platform.
This announcement comes shortly after the company announced it would share ad revenue with creators. While TikTok is rapidly growing in popularity, especially among younger users, creators often have a more difficult time making a profit through TikTok as opposed to its competitors like Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram.
While other social-media companies have primarily relied on ad revenue to support their business models, TikTok is focusing on in-app purchases. Last week, it was revealed that TikTok earned more than $205 million more than its competitors through in-app purchases so far this year.
Still, TikTok has around 1 billion active users compared to Facebook’s 3 billion and YouTube’s 2 billion. However, TikTok is a newer social-media platform and quickly approaching the same level as established platforms.
Backing up a bit
Leading lawmakers are criticizing JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon over the banking firm’s partnership with TikTok. The China-based social-media company TikTok has received significant criticism surrounding the app’s data collection and ties with Chinese state media.
JP Morgan, one of the largest banks in the U.S., has been working alongside TikTok representatives to develop in-app payment technology for the video-sharing app, Forbes reports.
Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) has strongly criticized the partnership, pointing out that the app would have to collect sensitive user data, which could become available to Chinese state media.
“Data, including private information belonging to Americans and other foreigners, available to ByteDance is also accessible to Beijing … It is outrageous that JPMorgan Chase would elect to join ByteDance in a partnership geared toward broadening and deepening the company’s, and as a result, the CCP’s, access to countless volumes of user data,” Rubio says.