As competition for creator talent increases,Pinterest today announced it was more than doubling its initial investment in its Creator Fund with an additional $1.2 million in a combination of cash grants, ad credits, and other creator resources for underrepresented groups. The $500,000 Creator Fund was announced by the comapny last year. Even with the fund's increase and other creator commitments, the investment of the company remains smaller than that of other social giants.
After announcing its Creator Fund in April 2021,Pinterest last fall said it would invest another $20 million toward Creator Rewards in the U.S., which would pay creators directly for participating in challenges. The company says the fund supports creators from underrepresented groups by offering both financial and educational resources. Pinterest wouldn't say how much of the new money is going towards cash grants.
With the Creator Fund's expansion,Pinterest will invest in creators across quarterly cycles that are now five weeks long and focus on different content areas. The first of the four cycles will be focused on fashion and beauty, and will include a partnership with a brand partner. The beauty giant will provide creator fund participants with its beauty industry insights and support of experts in the field, as well as the training provided byPinterest. The creators are being invited to apply.
The company says that the Creator Fund recipients will be presented with opportunities for brand partnerships, access to creator-focused conferences, and a first look at newPinterest products.
Even with the $20 million in rewards announced earlier, there is still a lot of competition for creator talent.
In 2020, TikTok launched its own creator fund with a $200 million commitment, but said it would grow to over $1 billion over the next three years. $1 billion was committed to creator bonus programs by Meta. A $100 million fund for Shorts creators was announced by YouTube last year, with the goal of specifically targeting TikTok, but also boasted of an investment of over $30 billion over the past three years. The creators of Spotlight were paid $250 million by the company over the course of the year.
The creator efforts ofPinterest are still getting started. Over the past year or so, it has been attempting to shift its platform from being an image pinboard for inspiration, ideas, and commerce to one that can serve the creator community through video and video-related monetization efforts. Idea Pins is a video-first feature aimed at creators which is something like a mix of both TikTok and Stories. The pins gave users the ability to record and edit content using tools similar to other social platforms. Like pages where the creator shares their recipe or the steps to reproduce a do-it-yourself project, Idea Pins offer a combination of video and other content, like pages where the creator shares their recipe or the steps to reproduce a do-it-yourself project.
The _Watch_ tab in the app was introduced last fall to make it easier for users to scroll through pins. As of yet, it is not known how well these efforts are paying off. The company tried to buy an online shopping platform, but delayed its decision because of talks of a possible takeover. Verishop had soured on the deal.
The graduates of the Creator Fund gained an average of 60 percent more followers after completing the program. It is difficult to understand how well the creators are doing, or how that is impacting the rest of the world.
The Creator Fund will be expanded outside the US in the second half of 2022.
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