X Replaces Revenue Sharing Program With Original Content Rewards

X, the social media platform owned by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, is changing how it pays creators by shutting down its existing Revenue Sharing program and replacing it with a new system called Original Content Rewards.

The company said it will stop accepting new participants into Revenue Sharing, while creators already enrolled will continue earning through September 7. Starting September 8, eligible creators will be able to apply for Original Content Rewards.

The new program will keep several of the existing requirements. Participants must subscribe to one of X’s Premium tiers and have at least 500 verified followers. They must also generate 500,000 Home Timeline impressions from verified users within 90 days.

The main difference is that X is putting much more emphasis on originality. The company said qualifying material can include original reporting and analysis, photos and videos created by the poster, as well as memes and graphics they designed themselves. Commentary can also qualify, provided creators add meaningful original value when using material made by others.

X targets copied and recycled content

X also provided examples of content that will not qualify for the new rewards program. These include posts copied directly from another account, content downloaded from one account and uploaded to another, and reposts that do not include meaningful transformation or additional value.

The move follows several attempts by X to change the way its Revenue Sharing program works. In April, the company reduced payments to aggregators and accounts focused on what it described as clickbait. Those changes led to complaints from popular creators who benefited from the existing system, and Musk later reversed some changes, including adjustments to how a creator’s local audience influenced payouts.

In announcing the new program, X’s Allegra Jacchia said the existing Revenue Sharing system had reached a point where its incentives were “misaligned.”

“Creators should be focused on bringing net new content to the platform instead of maximising payouts,” Jacchia said. She added that X could have continued adding rules and exceptions, but decided it was better to start over with a program designed from the beginning to reward originality.

The new approach could make original reporting, analysis and creator-produced media more valuable on X while reducing incentives for accounts that primarily recycle content from elsewhere. X said it will continue refining Original Content Rewards, improving its models and raising the standards over time.