TikTok’s shift to longer-form content is in some ways a reversal of fortunes - it’s now following its legacy peers into a content format that’s often more profitable. On Saturday, TikTok will officially phase out its original “Creator Fund,” and creators who want to monetize their content will have to join the new “Creativity Program Beta,” under which they’ll have to make videos longer than one-minute if they want to get paid by the app.
Those other platforms spent the following years trying to play catch-up to TikTok’s popularity, especially among the crucial teen demographic.īut now, the short-form video pioneer is changing course and pushing users to make and consume longer videos. Suddenly, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and other social platforms were rushing to roll out similar products, encouraging users to make videos up to one-minute in length that would be displayed vertically, in a scrolling feed with endless recommendations for what to watch next. When TikTok took off in 2020 - with short dancing or comedy clips providing much-needed entertainment to many users at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic - it launched a short-form video arms race.
