The Radical Egalitarianism of TikTok's Creator Fund Matters

If you’re lucky, perhaps something you post will temporarily spark a surge of engagement, but those same spectators, exhausted by the onslaught, will soon shift their weary attentions to the next recommended item flowing close behind. This relentless pace rewards passive consumption, not active interaction with individual creators. The winner-take-... See more

A platform-funded UCI program could also be controversial among top creators, because it is effectively redistribution within the platform’s economy: a share of the platform’s revenue—which is disproportionately earned from the top creators—would be allocated to emerging creators.

But what has emerged from this strategy is a highly skewed distribution of income where a few creators make millions and most of them make barely anything at all. A good deal for platforms and a handful of creators; a bad deal for everyone else.