TikTok, the popular Chinese social media platform owned by ByteDance, is launching a new content format that will allow creators to build video collections that they can put behind a paywall as a way to keep monetizing their reach.
These collections will be called “Series” and they can contain as many as 80 videos of up to 20 minutes each. Many different types of videos can be created under this format such as cooking recipes, tutorials about different subjects, and even motivational speeches.
The cost of accessing each Series will be set by the creator based on the appraised value of the information that they will convey through the videos and TikTok will, for now, let them keep all of the money they get from the sale of this content minus certain fees.
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All of the content shared via Series must abide by the Community Guidelines set forth by TikTok, meaning that the videos cannot include nudity, violent behavior, illegal activities, or the performance of dangerous acts.
For now, the program will only be available for a handful of creators that TikTok has hand-picked to test the beta version of Series. The platform promised that a waitlist will be available in a few months for other creators to apply.
TikTok and YouTube Are Rapidly Becoming Direct Competitors
With the launch of Series, TikTok is increasingly turning into a direct competitor of YouTube as long-form videos can now be shared within the social media platform. The video-sharing titan owned by Alphabet (GOOG) has taken notice of the situation and has launched new formats such as “Shorts”.
Since 1 February, creators have been receiving a portion of the ad revenues generated by their YouTube Shorts. This can be considered an aggressive step by the video-sharing platform to entice influencers and steal some of TikTok’s market share.
Meanwhile, the launch of Series comes two weeks after the platform announced a new version of its “Creativity Program” after the original one was heavily criticized by creators due to the low payouts they received in exchange for sharing content.
The first version of the Creativity Program was launched in 2020 and TikTok pledged to distribute up to $1 billion among eligible creators. However, many influencers reported that they receive just a few dollars despite their videos being seen by millions on the social media platform.
Legislators in the US Keep Pushing for a Countrywide TikTok Ban
Other than heated competition from YouTube and Instagram, TikTok is also dealing with increasingly hostile attitudes from legislators within the United States as a bill has been introduced to the House of Representatives to push for an outright ban of the social media app in the North American country.
Change requires strong bipartisan consensus. I’m proud to always work on a bipartisan basis and to have assembled a team of 12 senators of both parties for my national security tech bill. Let’s get it done.
— Mark Warner (@MarkWarner) March 7, 2023
Meanwhile, another bill has been introduced by Senator Mark Warner (D) to facilitate such a ban as the Biden administration has commented on multiple occasions that they fear the Chinese government could be using TikTok to promote its political and social agendas within the country.
In response, the federal government and several states have banned the app on all government-issued devices including smartphones and tablets. This ban obeys concerns that TikTok could unlawfully access sensitive information contained in these devices by asking for odd permissions and privileges that are not necessary for the app to function adequately.
TikTok has denied these allegations and has made some moves to appease legislators and security agencies. For example, ByteDance decided to store all account data from US residents in servers located within the country and managed by Oracle. However, the company highlighted that Chinese personnel still had access to the data contained in these servers.
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