Facebook is influencing influencers with a total of $1 billion in payouts

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg just announced plans to “invest over $1 billion to reward creators for great content they create on Facebook and Instagram through 2022.” That’s to keep creators invested in creating content for Facebook, presumably so they don’t migrate to other platforms.

To start, the bonus initiatives will be paid out to video content creators on Facebook who have in-stream ads enabled. The Stars tip system is also being expanded to include monthly bonuses for high-performing streamers, in a test that runs until the end of October.

Instagram’s bonuses will be invite-only at the start, with US-based creators eligible for a one-time payment for enabling IGTV ads. The plan is to also add bonuses for making Reels, or for hitting metrics milestones in Instagram Live.

The neat thing? Facebook says it’ll payout to all levels of creators, from those with multi-million followings or those just starting out on their journey. The bonus initiatives are only roughly sketched out, described as “seasonal, evolving and expanding over time.”

The Instagram app will have a dedicated hub for the bonus programs first, coming at some point this summer. The main Facebook app will get its own dedicated hub later this year.

Will this be enough for Facebook to keep creative creators on the platform? One billion dollars does sound like a lot, but then it pales in comparison to the $30 billion YouTube says it’s paid out to creators over the last three years.

Have any thoughts on this? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Editors’ Recommendations:

• YouTube takes a page out of the Twitch playbook with subscriber-only chat for streamers
• TikTok becomes the first non-Facebook app to reach 3 billion global downloads
• Instagram might soon look like TikTok with full-screen videos and more
• Twitter is the first app to remove Stories from its platform

Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.