Twitter, now X, opens up its ad revenue sharing program with global creators

Earlier this month, Twitter — which has since rebranded as X — began sharing ad revenue with verified creators in an attempt to retain top talent on its platform. Today, the company announced its “Ads Revenue Sharing” program is now available for eligible creators globally. The program, according to posts by X owner Elon Musk, aims to dole out $5 million in the first round of creator payments. This would be cumulative from the month of February onward, he noted.

Several creators posted they had received substantial payouts as a result, with some ranging in the five to six figures.

To be eligible, X users will need to subscribe to Blue (formerly Twitter Blue) or Verified Organizations and must have “at least 15M impressions on your cumulative posts within the last 3 months,” the website on the creator program explains. In addition, users must have at least 500 followers.

X is monetizing the ads served in the replies to creators’ posts to determine payouts, not the ads served in the main X timeline. This incentivizes creators to post things that encourage a lot of conversation. While that could lead to controversial hot takes or opinions and other extreme content, X has put some guardrails on what’s permitted. Sexual content, violence, criminal behaviors, gambling, drugs, alcohol and “get-rich schemes” are not allowed, for example. Creators also can’t attempt to monetize copyrighted content they don’t own.

With today’s announcement, the program is now globally available to creators who meet the eligibility requirements.

“We want X to be the best place on the internet to earn a living as a creator and this is our first step in rewarding you for your efforts,” reads a post by the official X account.

Adds X CEO, Linda Yaccarino, “absolute game changer for our creators.”

In addition to the global launch, Elon Musk also tweeted a chart indicating X’s monthly users reached a new high in 2023, even after the removal of bots, he claims. (Bot removal is an ongoing activity, of course, not a one-and-done scenario). The chart indicates Twitter, now X, at one point, reached 541.5 million monthly users, but it’s not labeled to show the months. It’s also not clear how Musk determines what qualifies as “monthly usage,” as compared with the industry standard MAU (monthly active user).

The chart differs from what others have shared using third-party measurement tools, including Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince, who recently pointed to tanking traffic to the Twitter domain. Simialarweb also reported declines in Twitter traffic alongside the launch of Threads.