Elon Musk’s X will no longer pay creators based on ads but on engagement

X, the Elon Musk-owned platform formerly known as Twitter, is making big changes to its Creator Revenue Sharing Program.

On Wednesday, the social media company announced that it would now start paying monetized creators on X based on engagement from X Premium users. The change will go into effect November 8, according to an X Help Center document.

X Premium users are those who pay for X’s paid subscription service, which starts at $8 per month. Users can tell if an account is subscribed to X Premium as subscribed accounts have the verified blue checkmark badge next to their username.

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Under the previous monetization system, monetized users on X were paid based on how many ads were served to X Premium users in the replies to their content.

With the new monetization system, X Premium users continue to be the only monetizable audience. However, the number of ads they view no longer has any relevance. In fact, users can now get paid for content that lacks advertisements entirely. 

Revenue will be dependent on how many X Premium users reply to, repost, and like a user’s content.

What these changes to the X Creator Revenue Sharing Program mean

According to X, monetized users should see higher payouts as a result of the change

The company claims that X Premium, which has long struggled to gain subscribers since its inception shortly after Musk took over the company, is growing.

“The more Premium subscriptions overall, the more revenue you earn,” the company said in a post from the official X account.

It appears with this change, X is trying to put focus on growing revenue via X Premium subscriptions instead of through its dwindling advertising sales. X previously reported that its revenue fell by nearly 40 percent due to advertisers fleeing the company.

However, this monetization change will likely bring a change to the culture of the platform too. Since X launched its monetization program, X has already seen changes to the platform as users have noticed many monetized accounts often post controversial content simply to cause outrage. This sort of clickbait brings many eyeballs to the content – and the advertising on it. This would lead to large payouts for these creators.

But previously, X didn’t monetize certain types of content that were deemed unfriendly to advertisers, such as pornography and depictions of violence. Now that ads will have no bearing on creator monetization revenue, it could be “anything goes” for the type of clickbait that flourishes on X.

Mashable reached out to X about the potential effects on content, and we will update if we hear back.