Facebook To Invest Over $1B In Creator Incentives

Facebook announced it will invest more than $1 billion by the end of 2022 in “programs that give creators new ways to earn money for the content they create on Facebook and Instagram,” according to a Wednesday (July 14) company blog post.

“… creators drive so much of the passion and creativity we see across our apps,” the post stated. “As we continue building creative tools like Live Audio Rooms and Bulletin, as well as monetization products like Stars and affiliate, we also want to reward creators, especially those who are just starting out, for creating content their communities love.”

Facebook will launch bonus programs as part of the effort that will pay those who hit certain milestones when they use the company’s creative and monetization tools and provide seed funding for creators to produce their content for distribution on the company’s platforms, according to the post.

Last year, Facebook added incentives, including fan subscriptions and the expansion of its Stars program, to bring more online video personalities to its platforms and help video creators and publishers earn more money on the social media site.

Facebook also offers automated thank-you cards that content creators and publishers can send to viewers who add Stars to their videos as part of its effort to take away some of YouTube’s market share.

The Stars feature allows viewers to send stars to video content creators in the middle of a livestream, with the stars worth about a penny apiece.

Earlier this year, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a marketplace for Instagram creators that matches them with the market they want to reach.

In addition, Instagram will likely add creator shops, which will let creators sell items to Instagram users directly through their profiles. Last year, the company introduced Facebook Shops and Instagram Shops as ways for more commerce to be integrated with the services.

Those efforts were aimed at keeping creators using Facebook and Instagram rather than YouTube and TikTok.