Substack is spending $20 million to courtroom TikTokers

Meta and YouTube aren’t the one platforms trying to profit from TikTok probably disappearing — Substack desires in on the motion, too.

The corporate introduced Thursday it’s launching a $20 million “creator accelerator fund,” promising content material creators they received’t lose income by leaping ship to Substack. Creators in this system additionally get “strategic and enterprise help” from Substack, and early entry to new options.

“We established this fund as a result of we’ve seen creators who focus on video, audio, and textual content develop their viewers, income, and affect on Substack, the place the platform’s community results amplify the standard and influence of the work they’re doing,” the corporate stated in a weblog publish.

This pivot on Substack’s half has been within the works for some time — for months, the corporate has been advertising itself not as a publication supply service however as a creator platform much like Patreon.

“On Substack, [creators] can construct their very own dwelling on the web: one the place creators, not platform executives or advertisers, personal their work and their viewers,” the weblog publish reads. The publish additionally cites “bans, backlash, and insurance policies that change with the political winds” as a motive creators can’t rely on conventional social media providers.

That’s all high-quality (we at The Verge have been saying this for some time). However creators specializing in Substack are additionally topic to ebbs and flows relying on what the corporate is prioritizing: first, it was newsletters, then it was tweet-like micro blogs, adopted by full-on web sites and livestreaming. For some, Substack’s preliminary said mission of giving extra freedom to unbiased writers is fading. And TikTok creators trying to transfer to Substack might want to rebuild their following another time — you clearly can’t export your TikTok followers.

The $20 million fund isn’t the primary time Substack has supplied a pool of cash meant to entice creators. Underneath a program referred to as Substack Professional, the corporate poached prime media expertise from conventional newsrooms with greater pay, medical insurance, and different perks. That program resulted in 2022, with Substack cofounder Hamish McKenzie saying the offers weren’t employment preparations however “seed funding offers to take away the monetary danger for a author in beginning their very own enterprise.” In different phrases, welcome to Substack. Now that you just’re right here, you’re by yourself — which is kind of the deal different platforms provide.