TikTok confirmed Thursday that it is testing support for paid subscriptions, paving the way for creators on the short form video platform to charge for their content.
How TikTok will add direct-to-creator payments to its highly successful business model is bit of a head-scratcher. But if creators are holding their best content for subscribers, that content is probably not available to fuel the algorithm, which in turn could reduce engagement, since in theory, it’s not being surfaced to non-subscribers.
And the creators themselves have to be able to predict what content subscribers will be willing to pay for, and what content will help them best promote their own work.
TikTok’s test of paid subscribers follows Instagram’s announcement that it, too, is launching a test of paid subscriptions with a small number of creators and influencers. Subscribers will pay a monthly fee to access exclusive content from creators they follow, including Stories and Live videos, a purple badge will denote a subscriber’s status to the creator/influencer in the comments section.
