X Is Replacing Revenue Sharing With A New Original Content Rewards Program

X has stopped accepting new applications for its revenue-sharing program and will completely shut it down after September 7. The website has launched the new Original Content Rewards Program to take its place, which it says will “reward creators who bring original ideas, expertise, reporting, creativity and commentary to X.” Under the new program, creators can earn money based on the qualified impressions their original content gets. 

The website describes original content as users’ original writing or reporting, photos or videos they take and memes or illustrations they create. They can earn from other people’s posts, but they will have to add meaningful commentary or analysis to them, or to do some creative editing to existing videos or photos. If the user just adds captions or text overlays to other people’s content that simply describe what’s going on, it won’t be counted as original. Bottom line, if a user’s addition to another person’s creation adds little to no value, it’s not “original content” under X’s policy. 

To be eligible for the new rewards program, users have to be 18 or older and live in a country where it’s available, as listed on the X’s help page. They need to be paying for a Premium, Premium+ or Premium Business subscription, have at least 500 verified followers and have at least 500,000 Home timeline views from verified users within the last 90 days. That means for impressions or views to count towards the creator’s total, they’ll have to be unique impressions from Premium users, as well. In addition, creators must continue meeting those requirements even after they’ve been accepted to the program to be able to get payouts.

People currently part of X’s revenue-sharing program will need to reapply for the new one when they become eligible for it on September 8. Those who aren’t part of the old program can apply for original content rewards now. 

Back in March, X updated its revenue-sharing program to give more weight to engagement from a user’s home region. It was most likely meant to deter users from pretending to be Americans after it was revealed earlier this year that dozens of popular accounts tweeting pro-Trump sentiments and US commentaries as a whole weren’t even based in the country. It’s not clear if X’s new program will have the same policy.