Facebook is rolling out another bonus program as it tries to bring more creators into its platform. This time, the company is focusing on subscriptions, which it says will help creators avoid Apple’s 30 percent commission on in-app purchases.
The social network is launching a web form for subscriptions, so individual creators can direct fans to subscribe outside of the app using Facebook Pay rather than Apple’s in-app purchases. “When people subscribe using this link, creators will keep all the money they earn (minus taxes),” Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a post.
Additionally, the company is introducing a bonus program that will pay creators between $5 and $20 for each new subscriber who signs up between now and the end of the year. Creators can earn up to $10,000 in bonuses, Facebook wrote in a blog post. The new bonus program is “invite-only in all 27 markets where the subscriptions feature is available to creators,” Facebook said, noting it wants to expand the program to more people “in the coming months.”
Zuckerberg, who has had a long-running feud with Apple, has made the so-called “App Store tax” one of his top talking points about the iPhone maker. The company already created a workaround for businesses to circumvent in-app purchases for paid events, and has told creators Facebook won’t take a cut of their earnings until 2023. On Wednesday, Zuckerberg said creators would also be able to download their subscriber lists in order to have “more ownership of their audience.”
Winning over creators has become an increasingly important priority for Facebook, which already announced plans to funnel $1 billion into creator programs by the end of next year. The company sees creators as key to fending off rivals like TikTok and YouTube, and winning back the “young adult” demographic. Newly disclosed documents show that Facebook and Instagram are facing increasing declines in the number of younger users on its platform. The trend has worried executives and stumped researchers, who have so far been unable to turn the numbers around.