The Blubber

X is introducing a major change to how creators can earn money on the platform. Previously, X shared ad revenue with creators based on the number of verified users who saw ads in replies to their posts. However, the company announced today that going forward, creators will be paid based on “engagement with your content from Premium users.”

In other words, the more engagement creators receive from X Premium subscribers on their content, the more revenue they can potentially earn. The idea is that increased interaction between Premium users should lead to higher payouts for everyone involved—at least in theory.

In practice, this might lead to even more replies from Premium users, who already get priority in replies based on the X Premium tier they subscribe to.

The big question remains whether this change will result in better payouts for creators. Although X encourages users to sign up for X Premium by promising that they can “earn a living on X,” many subscribers have expressed dissatisfaction with the current low payout levels. X has also made it clear in its creator revenue-sharing terms that it will remove users from the program if they are caught inflating engagement, but it’s unclear how effective this will be in preventing users from exploiting the system.

Starting November 8th, revenue from “verified ad impressions” in replies will no longer impact revenue sharing, as detailed in an X support document.