X, planning to pull back users with ad revenue payments.However, voices of doubt from creators

Alvin (last name withheld for privacy reasons), who goes online as @sondesix, is a tech reviewer and influencer with 101,000 followers on X.He said he had about 160 million impressions from February 1st to July 31st, and the amount he received during that period wasIt was $ 657 (about 95,000 yen).

“Confirming that payment was made gave me hope that I could continue to create content on X and get paid,” Alvin told Digiday. The potential for rewards gave Alvin hope for X, but “maybe other X Blue users will try to ramp up engagement with viral tweets just to make money,” he said. I am worried.

Take another creator, AJ Okami (@OkamiGames), for example. His content is focused on games and has over 32,000 followers on X. Based on his engagement levels from February to June 2023, he collected 95.1 million impressions at a rate of approximately $0.17/100K impressions, for which he received a payout of $162. Ta.

Meanwhile, content creator and streamer of the game NBA 2K, Albano (@_oFAB, who said he won’t reveal his last name for security reasons) has 13,000 followers on X. teeth$ 15,000 (about 2.18 million yen)It has publicly said it has received more payments. Albano did not respond to comments for this article.

Digiday requested an interview with X about these, and received a poop emoji in response.

“X owner Elon and his team seem to have no idea what they’re doing and feel like all the changes are negative. I did something positive, but I still feel uncomfortable[paying creators]because they’re charging for features for everyone else,” Okami said.

Good content creates engagement

Marketers are eyeing the move to pay users a portion of ad revenue as part of an attempt to mitigate problems following Musk’s (Twitter) acquisition and rebranding. In addition, the current situation where the engagement of Threads of rival Meta (Meta) is small may be spurring.

Threads, which has achieved the fastest number of downloads in years, was designed as a new app to compete with X. Meta is how Threads was created using the predicament of X. In response, X is making moves to reward creators.

“Like YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Twitch, X seems to believe that good content drives engagement,” said Mike Lee, director of strategy at brand strategy agency VSA Partners. Stated.

He also added, “My understanding is that X aims to be an app that provides all sorts of fun. However, in order to realize this vision, we need compelling content, and for that to happen, we need content on the platform. We need to attract creators, and at the same time, we need to provide brand-safe engagement for X to effectively engage brands, and that requires content and content creators.”

Differentiation from other companies

User engagement for Threads has dropped significantly since its launch in July, according to data from Sensor Tower.

Between August 8th and August 9th, the number of active users decreased by about 20% compared to August 5th, and the time spent on the platform per user decreased from 20 minutes to 10 minutes. Both Okami and Alvin say they’re “skeptical” because Threads doesn’t offer (creators) a way to monetize or find viral content.

By paying creators, X may be able to create a path that sets it apart from its competitors. “X seems to want to act like the (anything goes) frontier world of the internet, which feels like years before Reddit was as friendly to the marketers and general public as it is now,” said ad agency Hughes. Jackie Kostyuk, head of creative strategy at Fuse Create, said.