Content creators’ payments hit $2bn in 2023 – Meta

Meta Platforms Inc., the parent company of Facebook, disclosed on Wednesday that it paid over $2bn to content creators in 2023, marking a significant milestone in its monetisation efforts.

This announcement coincides with the rollout of Facebook’s new Content Monetisation beta programme, aimed at expanding opportunities for creators to earn from various content formats.

In a blog post, the social media giant stated that it had expanded its monetisation programmes since 2017, enabling more than four million creators to earn money through videos, reels, photos, and text posts. Payouts for reels and short videos surged by over 80 per cent in the past year.

“As we’ve expanded from just providing monetization for longer videos to also including reels and posts, overall payouts have grown. In the past year, Facebook has paid content creators more than $2bn for videos, reels, photos, and text posts. During that time, payouts for reels and short videos have grown more than 80 per cent,” the company stated.

Meanwhile, the new Facebook Content Monetisation programme merges three existing Facebook-funded creator monetisation initiatives – In-Stream Ads, Ads on Reels, and the Performance Bonus – into a single programme.

Meta explained that this integration streamlines monetisation for creators, allowing them to earn from multiple formats with unified insights.

“We’re proud of how our monetisation programmes have helped creators thrive on Facebook, but we know that the varying availability, eligibility requirements, and sign-up processes of our different programmes have resulted in some creators missing opportunities and others not being eligible to earn from all available formats.

“The data backs this up today, only about one-third of monetising creators on Facebook earn from more than one Facebook-funded programme,” the company added.

With the Facebook Content Monetisation programme, creators will need to join only one monetisation programme, through which they can monetise multiple formats and track their performance with a single set of insights.

This change, according to Meta, simplifies the process of earning money across Facebook’s available content formats.

Facebook Content Monetisation is built on the same performance-based payout model that powers Ads on Reels, In-Stream Ads, and the Performance Bonus.

Meta stated that creators’ earnings through Facebook Content Monetisation will be tied to how their eligible content performs.

“If you’ve been successful with Ads on Reels, that success should continue in Content Monetization, but now you can also earn from eligible longer videos, photos, and text posts if you hadn’t already,” the company explained.

Additionally, it revealed that it has started sending invitations to one million creators already monetizing on Facebook to join the beta program, with plans to send more invitations in the coming months.

Invited creators can join through the monetization tab of the Professional dashboard on mobile or the Meta Business Suite on desktop, Meta concluded.

Meta announced that as of July 2024, content creators from Nigeria and Ghana can now start earning money on Facebook. This new development opens up monetisation opportunities for creators in these countries for the first time.