• Threads is testing paying creators for attracting users to the platform.
• According to reports, Meta will pay up to $5 000 for posts with 10 000 or more views.
• Creators need to abide by Instagram’s rules to get a payout.

The would-be Twitter killer, Threads, hasn’t exactly impressed since launching last year. While it was billed as an alternative to Elon Musk’s ever-worsening everything app, it seems the interest in Threads was fleeting.

Meta seemingly wants to change that by offering creators money for posting to Threads. This is according to a support page spotted by Engadget. Dubbed the bonus program, creators will earn money based on the performance of a post and the total number of posts.

This payment offer is still being tested, hence there hasn’t been a big song and dance about it. It’s worth remembering that it took months for X to implement ad-revenue sharing with users after announcing it would start paying creators, something we suspect cost X big-time given it had to pay creators from the date Musk announced the feature.

While the aforementioned support page doesn’t mention how many views a post needs to get paid, social media consultant Matt Navara posted a screenshot showcasing a threshold of 10 000 views per post to earn up to $5 000.

To qualify for payment, content needs to abide by the rules about bonuses on Instagram (given that Threads is a part of that ecosystem).

“The details of the bonus program may vary by participant. You can find the date at which the program expires and the terms of the bonus by tapping Bonuses in the professional dashboard, and when you onboard to each bonus,” reads the support page.

“We determine the amount you’ve earned at the end of the bonus period. The earnings from that bonus won’t be paid until the following month,” adds Instagram.

Posts not eligible for a bonus payment include:

• Your post is claimed by another rights holder.
• Your post violates Instagram’s Content Monetisation Policies
• Your post is branded content. Branded content is currently ineligible for Threads bonus.
• Your post is in a language that the bonus program does not support.
• Your post includes content that is watermarked with a third-party platform’s mark, name or logo. Only Threads posts that you have created can earn bonuses.
• Engagement appears inauthentic, for example, fraudulent views or artificially boosted views.
• Your post is deleted. You may not get credit for the views that a post received if you delete your post.
• Your post has less than 2 500 eligible views. Note: Threads views eligible for the bonus program only include views on the Threads app and Threads.net.
• Your post doesn’t include text.

Since X started offering payouts the platform is awash with low-effort engagement bait. While Musk has said that accounts farming engagement will be “traced to the source” and banned, the problem has become so pervasive, we wouldn’t be surprised if that action led to a decline in user numbers.

Meta is somewhat more capable of fighting that given the size of the company but that doesn’t mean it’s immune to exploitation.

Whether Threads will expand this test to more users and release bonus payments as a marquee feature of the platform, remains to be seen.