The platforms that now dominate the attention of several billion people have, over the past few years, developed an elaborate system of requirements, thresholds, and payment schedules that determine whether the people who make content for them will be compensated for doing so. The rules vary considerably from one platform to the next, and they change often, which may explain why so many creators report feeling somewhat like tenant farmers who learn the terms of their lease only after the harvest has been sold.
On Instagram, which is owned by Meta, a creator needs 500 followers to receive tips on Reels, 1,000 for the Creator Marketplace, and 10,000 for exclusive content. On TikTok, which is owned by ByteDance, the thresholds range from zero followers (for TikTok Shop, provided you link to an official seller account) to 100,000 (for premium ads through TikTok Pulse). YouTube, which is owned by Google, currently requires 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours for ad revenue — though that threshold will double in February 2027, to 8,000 watch hours and 20 million Shorts views.
(The platforms do not, as a rule, send advance notice of these changes by certified mail.)
X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, is replacing its Creator Revenue Sharing program on Sept. 7 with something called the Original Content Rewards Program. "The revenue share program had run its course," said Allegra Jacchia, the creator product lead at SpaceXAI, which is the parent company of X. Creators will still need 500 verified followers and an active paid subscription to the platform — meaning they must pay X for the privilege of potentially being paid by X.
Snap, Twitch, and Facebook each maintain their own matrices of follower counts, activity minimums, and country restrictions. VidIQ, the creator support app, has noted that YouTube takes 45 percent of ad revenue on long-form videos; Twitch's standard subscription split is 50-50, with better rates available for larger streamers.
One creator told Digiday that she made over half a million dollars on Snap last year, which is more than she earned on TikTok despite having nearly seven million followers there.
The economics of creative work have always been complicated. They have never been this granular.
Original story published in Digiday: "How every major platform pays creators"