Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Instagram is taking advantage of TikTok’s absence from app stores by offering creators large cash bonuses to exclusively post Reels on the platform, according to a report from The Information. The bonuses reportedly range from $10,000 to $50,000 per month and require creators to post their short-form videos on Instagram before publishing them to other platforms, like TikTok.
Meta has boosted payouts for creators to compete with TikTok in the past — but the big bonuses don’t seem to last. In 2021, Instagram launched a Reels bonus program, but in 2022, creators said the platform had begun slashing their payments until the program was axed completely in 2023.
The report of new bonuses comes at a chaotic time for TikTok, which went dark in the US to comply with the federal divest-or-ban law that came into force on January 19th. Though the app started coming back online on Sunday, it still hasn’t returned to app stores. President Donald Trump also signed an executive order delaying its ban.
The Verge reached out to Meta with a request for comment but didn’t immediately hear back.
Within the past week, Instagram has announced a series of updates that appear to cater to TikTok creators. Along with changing the format of profile grids from squares to rectangles, Instagram also extended the maximum length of Reels to three minutes. Instagram head Adam Mosseri also revealed that the company is working on a new video editing and creation app designed to compete directly with CapCut, which is owned by TikTok parent company ByteDance.
All this might not be enough to attract TikTok creators, as some aren’t happy with Meta’s reversal on fact-checking and policy changes that seem designed to appease the new administration.
