Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
Creators making money using Instagram Reels say their payouts have been slashed in recent weeks and target metrics for monetization have ballooned, according to the Financial Times. Payments are down as much as 70 percent per view and videos need millions more views for creators to get paid.
The Reels Play Bonus Program, announced in July, offers financial rewards to creators who post on Reels, Instagram’s TikTok-style short-form video clone. Payouts ranged from $600 to as much as $35,000 if videos hit a target view count, but creators expressed confusion over how payments and goals were determined. The bonus program is part of a promise by Meta, which owns Instagram, to pay $1 billion to creators through 2022.
Creators say changes in…
