After scrapping its much-hyped $2 billion (Sh257 billion) Creator Fund—a scheme that promised to reward content creators but left many complaining of being paid “pennies”—TikTok is making another play to win over talent.
The social media giant has launched TikTok for Artists with Kenya becoming the first country in the region to roll out the initiative.
TikTok’s Creator Fund, launched in Europe in 2020, was controversial from the start.
Several creators said the programme failed to pay meaningfully with some telling Fortune magazine they earned only “mere pennies” for videos that racked up hundreds of thousands—even millions—of views.
To qualify, creators needed more than 10,000 followers and at least 100,000 video views in the past 30 days. By 2023, however, the fund was quietly discontinued in Europe, never reaching Kenya or the rest of Africa.
With TikTok for Artists, the company says it is shifting focus by offering musicians and their teams data-driven insights into how their music performs on the platform.
Kenya, one of TikTok’s fastest-growing markets in Africa, was strategically chosen as one of the first countries on the continent to access the platform after its global debut earlier this year.
According to the 2023 Reuters Institute Digital News Report, Kenya had the highest TikTok usage in the world: 54 percent of respondents said they used the app for any purpose, and 29 percent for news.
This put the country ahead of Thailand, South Africa and Peru, underscoring TikTok’s growing role as both an entertainment and news source among younger audiences—at a time when Facebook’s dominance is waning.
The launch comes as TikTok’s role is shifting far beyond dance trends and lip-syncs, cementing its place as a serious driver of music discovery and even news consumption.
It also signals ByteDance’s recognition of Kenya’s position in Africa’s digital culture, alongside South Africa and Nigeria as one of its top three markets on the continent.
Unlike the defunct Creator Fund that dangled cash rewards, TikTok for Artists is offering analytics tools. The platform provides detailed data on posts, songs, and audience engagement.
Artists can track performance metrics—views, likes, shares, comments, and completion rates—alongside song-specific data such as how many videos were created using their tracks and the overall engagement they generated.
Audience insights break fans down by gender, age, and language, helping artists fine-tune their content strategies.
The timing is deliberate. Kenya’s vibrant music scene has thrived on TikTok, where challenges around Gengetone, Genge and even urban gospel frequently go viral, propelling young artists into the limelight and beyond traditional media.
Still, the rollout falls short of direct monetisation. Unlike creators in the US, UK, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, and Brazil who can access TikTok’s Creativity Program with revenue-sharing features, Kenyan artists remain excluded.
For now, local creators must continue to rely on indirect income streams—brand partnerships, endorsements, and collaborations—to turn virality into earnings.
