X (Twitter) has paid almost $20M to creators, CEO says
The company formerly known as Twitter has paid out nearly $20 million to creators, according to a post from X CEO Linda Yaccarino.
The platform, now called X, began paying creators in July for a share of the ad revenue they earned from ads served in the replies to their posts to other verified users. To be eligible, users must subscribe to X Premium (which is the new name for Twitter Blue, not a porn site), have more than 500 followers and have earned more than 5 million tweet impressions for the last three months.
Create. Connect. Collect all on X. We’re enabling the economic success of new segments like creators. And so far we've paid out almost $20 million to our creator community. https://t.co/kk137uPkAo
— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayaX) September 29, 2023
The first payments in July, which were cumulative from February onward, totaled around $5 million, according to owner Elon Musk. If X has now paid $20 million, that would mean that substantially more creators have joined the creator program, or that X ads are generating more impressions.
Creators are also now incentivized to get users to reply to their tweets. While this could inspire conversation, we know from platforms like Facebook that extreme emotions drive the most engagement.
However, Twitter has been a platform deprioritized by creators since its inception, since it has been very difficult to convert a following into cash -- on platforms like YouTube, creators in the partner program have been getting a share of ad revenue for over a decade. Now that creators can make money on the platform, there's reason to subscribe to X Premium (...still not a porn site) and get posting.