Pinterest has announced that it’s ending its Creator Rewards program this week. The Creator Rewards scheme provided a means for creators to make money by creating themed Idea Pins, based on monthly prompts provided by Pinterest.

“After the program’s conclusion on Wednesday, [Pinterest] will pay a one-time bonus to creators in the program who participated in at least one reward goal in August, September or October, a Pinterest spokesperson said. The company declined to share how much it was giving away in bonuses or how many people were part of the creator rewards program” according to The Information. 

Various social platforms have offered similar incentive schemes, with varying levels of success, but for the most part, they’ve eventually become unsustainable. Which, in some ways, is expected. Direct payments from the platforms are ideally designed to help guide creators into other monetization avenues, and are not geared towards building reliance on those payments themselves.

For example, Snapchat has experienced similar issues with its Spotlight program, which is also now more aligned to specific thematic targets, while TikTok’s still working on the best way to ensure its top stars continue to get paid.

It should be noted that Pinterest’s Creator Fund is specifically aimed at supporting Creators and communities ‘that have been disproportionately underrepresented’, and that program will continue on at this stage.

As of yet, it seems that no platform has got the creator content format 100% right but more options are evolving (such as YouTube’s Shorts) which could provide more avenues for sustainable creator funding in future. Pinterest’s program ends today. 

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Curious Creator