Facebook is rolling out a new way for video creators to make money on its platform, furthering their attempts to challenge YouTube
The company announced today it’s beginning to test a paid subscription feature that will allow Facebook users to subscribe to their favorite Facebook video creators.
The subscriptions will cost 5 bucks a month and Facebook says they won’t take a cut from the subscription revenue. However, both Apple and Google will still take about 30 percent of the subscription, the standard for in-app purchases, meaning creators won’t be getting the full 5 dollars subscribers are paying.
The key component for Facebook here is that they wants to keep their creators creating on Facebook, and one of the essential ways of ensuring that is to give those creators ways to make money on the platform. Otherwise, there’s nothing keeping them from leaving to a platform where they can make money, like YouTube.
Right now, it is easier to make money on YouTube, where creators can get Google to run ads at the start of their videos for a 55 percent cut of the revenue those ads make. Facebook doesn’t have anything like that in place yet, and while they are planning to test pre-roll video ads, it seems that they are relying on their users to be the key components to funding creators.
For those who do subscribe, they will receive extra content and features that non-subscribers won’t have access to, like exclusive clips and a “supporter” badge.
The new feature will also help video creators connect with companies for branded content. Creators will have the ability to create a portfolio that advertisers can search and see what those creators are capable of.
