Meta is paying creators to promote Instagram on other video apps

Meta is offering deals to creators to promote Instagram on other short-form video apps, including TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube, CNBC has learned. 

With the TikTok app not currently available for download from Apple and Google’s app stores in the U.S., Meta is seizing the opportunity to promote Instagram, the crown jewel of its social media empire, to more users. 

As part of the deals that Meta is offering, creators must promote Instagram twice a month on other short-form video platforms, including Snapchat, Google’s YouTube Shorts and others, according to details of a contract offered to a creator that was reviewed by CNBC.

The contract also requires three months of posting exclusivity on Instagram’s Reels short-form video product before the creator can post content elsewhere.

These deals last six months and obligate a creator to post a minimum of eight Instagram Reels per month, with at least one more post on Instagram than any other platforms. The creator is also required to share content to their Instagram Story twice a month.

To meet these requirements, the posts cannot be part of a brand deal, which is an agreement where creators are compensated to post content on their account that promotes a brand.

The contract reviewed by CNBC is an example of a mid-tier deal that Meta is offering to creators. The social media company is also offering terms varying in amount of deliverables and compensation based on the size of the audience, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Information on Monday reported that Instagram is offering creators with large TikTok followings cash bonuses ranging from $10,000 to $50,000 per month for a creator to shift their videos to Instagram Reels.

Meta said it has also announced several new features for creators, including a video creation app called Edits, the expansion of Reels to three minutes and a new bonus program for creator monetization.

This push by Instagram underscores the high stakes in the social media landscape, where platforms are vying to capture the attention of millions of users while TikTok’s future hangs in the balance.

TikTok shut down in the U.S. for a few hours last week after the Supreme Court upheld a law that was signed by former President Joe Biden in April. That law forced China-based ByteDance to divest its ownership of TikTok or face an effective ban of the app in the U.S. on Jan. 19. As a result of the law, Apple and Google also pulled TikTok from its app stores in the U.S.

The app, however, began working again in the U.S. after President Donald Trump said he would delay the ban. Trump followed through on Monday and signed the executive order, which delays enforcement of the ban by 75 days.

In the meantime, U.S. investors from Frank McCourt to Jimmy Donaldson, known as Mr. Beast, have offered to do deals that would bring ownership of TikTok to the U.S. Trump has also expressed interest in billionaire Elon Musk or Oracle Chairman Larry Ellison obtaining partial ownership of the app.

For Meta, paying creators to promote Instagram could be an effective strategy to regain the app’s foothold as the most popular social media platform among teens and young adults after TikTok surpassed it in popularity in recent years.

According to a 2023 Pew Research Center survey, 63% of teens aged 13 to 17 say they use TikTok compared to 59% who use Instagram.

Many TikTok creators rely on brand deals as a primary way of generating income, with payments often depending on the size of their followings. With TikTok’s future in limbo, brands are pausing or altering their agreements to include competing platforms.

“Advertising has been paused, and it’s causing a lot of anxiety and a lot of lost revenue,” said Dan Weinstein, co-CEO of Underscore Talent, an agency that manages many top internet creators.

Amid the uncertainty, advertisers and creators are in a wait-and-see mode, and brands are diversifying their social media strategies beyond TikTok by incorporating platforms like Instagram and YouTube Shorts into agreements, Weinstein said. 

Jumping from one platform to another does not guarantee success for creators. Many who were popular on TikTok can struggle to develop an audience on other apps.

“It’s hard for a lot of creators on TikTok to necessarily make the move to traditional YouTube or traditional Instagram,” says Jacob Wallach, founder & CEO of Social4TheWin, a social media consultancy. “You have YouTube Shorts, you have Instagram Reels. You can repurpose that content onto these platforms, but the algorithm is different.”

Meta isn’t the only company looking to pounce on creators who are looking for new revenue streams.

Substack on Thursday announced a $20 million Creator Accelerator Fund to help creators transfer and grow their paid subscriptions. Substack is a platform that allows writers and creators to publish newsletters and generate revenue for their content through subscriptions.

Some creators are also flocking to other foreign platforms as well. 

RedNote, known as Xiaohongshu in China, was the top free app on Apple’s app store last week and has rapidly gained traction among users looking for alternatives amid the uncertainty with TikTok. RedNote offers a platform for video sharing similar to TikTok. 

According to a study by Captiv8, 67% of TikTok creators surveyed are considering RedNote as their preferred alternative.

“The real reason why people ran to Xiaohongshu was not because it’s a better platform, by any means, but because it’s almost kind of like a screw you to the U.S. government,” Wallach said.

As other platforms actively court creators in response to TikTok’s uncertain future, the value of these digital influencers becomes ever clearer, Wallach said. 

“Creators are the ones who make these platforms. Without them, it’s like having a town square with no entertainment,” Wallach said. “Creators are the reason why all of these platforms are successful.”

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