Substack is the latest social media platform seeking to woo TikTok creators ahead of a possible ban in the US. With half an eye on the Chinese-owned platform’s well-publicised problems, Substack has announced the launch of $20 million in guarantees to help creators move their paid-subscription audience to Substack.
According to Substack, its new Creator Accelerator Fund “is designed to help creators expand their reach and business by taking advantage of Substack’s growth network and full suite of publishing, community, and discovery tools. On Substack, they can build their own home on the internet: one where creators, not platform executives or advertisers, own their work and their audience.”
The Fund provides creators with a financial guarantee to ensure they will lose none of their existing revenue as a result of the migration. They will receive ongoing strategic and business support from Substack’s deeply experienced partnerships team, with particular focus on the migration process and key launch moments.
Substack is a platform that allows writers and other content creators to publish newsletters directly to their audience, either for free or on subscription. It was founded in 2017 and claims to have millions of weekly active users. In announcing the new initiative, it said, “we established this fund because we’ve seen creators who specialise in video, audio, and text expand their audience, revenue, and influence on Substack, where the network effects amplify the quality and impact of the work they’re doing. “
The platform has already piloted payments with creators such as Sarah Stewart Holland and Beth Silvers, hosts of podcast Pantsuit Politics. They said Pantsuit Politics’ community has swelled to over 18,000 subscribers on Substack, including thousands of paying members: “The group chat feature in the app has been a game changer, creating a thriving space for our community to engage directly. The discoverability features have introduced us to thousands of new listeners.”
Substack doesn’t directly mention TikTok in the launch of the Fund, but just ten days earlier it published a blog which outlined how TikTok creators are bringing their followers to Substack. For anyone wanting to know more about migrating subscriptions to Substack, the company is hosting a Zoom masterclass to discuss best practices on Tuesday, February 25, from 2 to 3 pm ET.
