X is making a significant change to its creator monetization program, switching from ad revenue share to a percentage of Premium user payments as the financial pool for its participating creator payouts.
As explained by X:
“Creators! We’re excited to unveil our biggest update to Creator Revenue Sharing yet. Payouts are increasing and you’ll now be paid based on engagement with your content from Premium users – not ads in replies. Ads in replies will no longer impact your payout. Instead, you’ll be paid based on engagement with your content from Premium users. So, when your followers subscribe to X Premium and engage with your content, they support you directly. And, because X Premium is growing, your payout is too. The more Premium subscriptions overall, the more revenue you earn.”
X has revamped its creator payment system, moving away from ad revenue sharing to a new model where creators earn directly from Premium user subscriptions.
Now, up to 25% of the subscription fees from Premium users can be distributed to creators, based on how much these users engage with their content.
This approach means that creators are rewarded for meaningful interactions, as only genuine engagements from Premium users will count towards their earnings.
Also Read | Brazil Bans X: Elon Musk Defies Court on Content Moderation
Essentially, when Premium users interact with their favorite creators, they’re directly contributing to those creators’ income, creating a more direct support system through everyday use of the platform.
“Engagement from users on higher Premium tiers are also worth more. We also consider the characteristics of your audience, including who they are and who follows them.”
So, ideally, X will reward creators for generating more genuine engagement, while also penalizing those who seek to assist others via comments to juice their payouts.
It makes some sense, and with X losing advertisers, it should help to ensure that creator payouts don’t continue to decline, as many have found to be the case.
But it also means that X’s creator payout program is effectively morphing into a pyramid scheme, in that if you want bigger payouts, you’ll need to encourage your audience to sign up to Premium to support you.
And then they can earn their own payouts, by encouraging their followers to sign up too, etc.
