There is a pitfall that 'the larger TikTok, the less profitable video creators will have.'

Video sharing app TikTok announced in September 2021 that the number of monthly active users reached 1 billion . The number of creators posting videos on TikTok is increasing, but it has been pointed out that there are 'pitfalls' in their profit structure.

Hank Green Has A Problem With TikTok's Creator Fund: 'When TikTok Becomes More Successful, TikTokers Become Less Successful.' --Tubefilter
https://www.tubefilter.com/2022/01/24/hank-green-tiktok-creator-fund-earnings-per-view/

How creator funds fall short for creators --by Casey Newton
https://www.platformer.news/p/how-creator-funds-fall-short-for

While YouTube boasts a global share of the video sharing platform, TikTok has also seen significant growth in recent years. In December 2021, it was discovered that TikTok's 'average video playback time per user' exceeded YouTube in the United States and the United Kingdom.

TikTok's 'Average Video Play Time' Finally Exceeds YouTube-GIGAZINE

Most of the revenue from YouTube and TikTok comes from advertising. Both platforms make money by getting creators to post lots of great videos, expanding their audience, and displaying more ads. The revenue earned by the platform can be divided into 'what the platform operator earns' and 'what is returned to creators'. For example, YouTube adopts a mechanism called 'YouTube Partner Program' for this revenue distribution. increase.

The YouTube Partner Program was announced in 2008 . Until then, creators couldn't 'earn directly from the release of content,' but the YouTube Partner Program is regarded as a groundbreaking mechanism that has fundamentally changed this.

To use the YouTube Partner Program, certain requirements such as '1000 or more subscribers', '4000 hours or more of valid public video total playback time in the last 12 months', and 'have an AdSense account' Must be met. Channels that meet this requirement and participate in the program can earn revenue according to the split rule that 'YouTube receives 45% of the advertising revenue displayed in the video and creators receive 55%'. This means that the more YouTube videos you watch and the more revenue you have, the more revenue will be distributed to creators.

On the other hand, TikTok's revenue structure is completely different from YouTube. Unlike YouTube, TikTok doesn't put ads on the video itself that plays. In TikTok, ads are 'sandwiched between videos.' For this reason, individual creators cannot 'earn directly from the ads displayed in their videos.'

In order to solve the problem that 'profit is not returned to creators like YouTube', TikTok created a fund of 200 million dollars (about 21 billion yen) in 2020 to support creators. The details of the revenue distribution in this creator fund are not disclosed, but it is considered to be 'proportionately distributed from the total playing time of the video'.

Dividing this $ 200 million a year by 365 days gives you $ 550,000 a day. Although 64 million yen is not a small amount, the fact that there is an upper limit on the distribution amount means that 'the more creators and the more videos that are viewed, the smaller the share of each creator'. To do.

In fact, Hank Green, the founder of the popular YouTube channel SciShow , said, 'TikTok's revenue of 5 cents per 1000 views in 2020 was 2.5 cents in 2021. It became 3 yen). ' In other words, YouTube is a mechanism that allows creators to increase their profits as the platform expands, while TikTok has a mechanism that the creators' profits decrease as the platform expands.

So ... TikTok Sucks-YouTube


Also, according to Green's research, TikTok users will see one ad every 10 times they play the video. When Mr. Green tried to advertise, it seems that the advertising cost to get 1000 views was 3 to 6 dollars (about 350 to 700 yen). From the survey, Mr. Green thinks that the advertising revenue that TikTok will earn will be '30 to 60 cents (about 35 to 70 yen) per viewing of the advertisement', and the distribution ratio to creators is overwhelmingly smaller than YouTube. Pointed out. He also said that if TikTok adopts a mechanism similar to YouTube, the distribution to creators will be at least 6 times the current level.

'There are pitfalls in TikTok's creator economy,' Green said, while YouTube and TikTok have different platform growth stages, and TikTok may be in a phase focused on 'expanding.' Did.