TikTok is shutting down its $1 billion creator fund on December 16 of this year, according to the company announcement. Creators in the US, UK, Germany, and France, except Italy and Spain, will no longer be able to monetize their content through the fund.

Originally introduced in 2020, the TikTok fund promised creators to pay out $1 billion over the course of three years. Creators later noted, the low payout they received for content with millions of views, making it impossible for them to earn a sufficiently adequate amount.

The company hasn’t responded whether it paid out the $1 billion as vowed to creators. Just this year, the platform introduced a new monetisation method that would have resulted in higher payouts, called the Creativity Program. The new fund enabled creators to make videos longer than a minute and earn payouts according to viewer and engagement metrics. TikTok spokesperson, Maria Jung, said creators earned 20 times more in the new program than in the original one.

With the close of the original Creator Program, creators can now switch to the Creativity Program and earn a more decent earning.