Meta is experimenting with a new creators marketplace on Instagram, linking freelance creatives to employers for paid projects.
The marketplace would be “a set place on Instagram where creators can get discovered and paid, and where brands can share new partnership opportunities,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote on a Facebook post this week.
Zuckerberg promised that Meta would hold off on “any revenue sharing on Facebook and Instagram until 2024.” That applies, as well, to a creator subscription service launched earlier this year that gives popular Instagram content creators a way to cash in on viral posts.
Direct monetization, even in the longer term, might not be the point. Meta is keen to incentivize creators of popular content to join its platforms or just stay on them because viral content drives traffic.
In fact, the new marketplace on Instagram mimics TikTok’s Creator Marketplace, launched back in 2019. That marketplace showcases the talent of TikTok’s key influencers, highlighting their creative style as well as proprietary data on the size, demographics and distribution of their audiences.
Using Instagram’s creators marketplace will be straightforward, according to reporting by Mexico’s Marketing 4 Ecommerce: When a company identifies a creator it likes, it can make contact through Instagram’s direct messaging describing necessary deliverables and payment. A special folder will be created in Instagram DMs allowing creators and companies to filter offers and projects.
In parallel, Meta is launching “interoperable subscriptions” to allow creators to give paying subscribers from other platforms, including Instagram, access to subscriber-only Facebook Groups. The company says these groups are the first investment Meta has made in interoperable monetization tools for creators.