TikTok is shutting down its Creator Fund

TikTok is shutting down its Creator Fund.

This is devastating news for anyone who makes money off the app, which includes most social media creators. According to research from Epidemic Sound, 30 percent of creators said TikTok is the top platform for generating income, followed by YouTube (25.8 percent), Facebook (16.5 percent), Twitter (13.1 percent), and, at the bottom of the list with just 7.1 percent, Instagram.

The app will formally shut down the fund — which pays creators with at least 10,000 followers and at least 100,000 views on their videos in the last 30 days — on Dec. 16, according to a Monday report from Fortune. The news isn't entirely surprising: When TikTok first launched the Creator Fund in 2020, it said it would only be paying creators for three years.

A TikTok spokesperson said in a statement to TIME that the company is committed to creating "the best experience possible on TikTok and provide a robust ecosystem of monetization offerings to creators."

"Part of our efforts and ongoing commitment to provide requires us to evolve products and apply resources elsewhere to support creators best and explore new offerings," the spokesperson told TIME.

TikTok's creativity fund is still around through its Creativity Program, though. It pays approved creators who make videos longer than a minute. But unlike the Creator Fund, where you make money off all your videos, the Creativity Program only lets you make money on those longer-form videos.

"The Creativity Program was developed based on the learnings and feedback we've gained from the previous Creator Fund," TikTok told Mashable in a statement. "As we continue developing new ways to reward creators and enrich the TikTok experience, we value the feedback and direct insights from our community to help inform our decisions."

Looks like TikTok just took its next step into long-form content.