Meta To Pause Its Reels Play Bonus Program for Facebook, Instagram

Short-form video creators may want to re-examine their sources of income soon.

Meta recently announced it is pausing its Reels Play bonus program on both its social media platforms to focus on other monetization solutions.

Meta previously launched its Reels Play bonus program in 2021 to pay eligible content creators for their content based on the performance of their posts, per a Meta Newsroom post.

Meta Reels Play Bonus Program Pause Details

A Meta spokesperson explained in a statement to Business Insider that Meta decided to pause its Reels Play bonus program to evolve the test of its Reels Play Bonus program on Instagram and Facebook.

According to the spokesperson, the company is investing in a monetization suite that helps content creators get a steady source of income, and as such, it had to stop extending new and renewed Reels Play deals for short-form video creators on both its social media platforms as of press time.

To clarify, all Facebook short-form video creators will have their Reels Play bonus paused for the time being until Meta launches its new monetization suite. However, unlike the pause Facebook users received, Mewta will only delay the Rells Play bonus of US Instagram short-form video creators, per The Verge.

This pause on Meta's Reels Play bonus program may have something to do about the company getting ready to expand advertising on Reels, allowing Meta to provide content creators with more traditional revenue-sharing arrangements. Facebook's Head, Tom Alison, apparently hinted at the expansion in their latest blog post about Meta's present and future.

Alison mentioned in the post that Meta would continue expanding its ads on Facebook Reels tests to assist creators in earning ad revenue for their Reels and growing their virtual gifting through Stars on Reels.

Although the Meta spokesperson, who The Verge identified as Paige Cohen, didn't mention when the company will launch its bonus program again for short-form video creators, they did mention that Meta plans to run the program in a more targeted form, especially in potential new markets.

This new monetization suite means that short-form content creators for Meta's two social media platforms can still monetize directly from the company and the support of their fans and brand partnerships.

Meta Reels Play Bonus Program Details

As previously mentioned, Meta launched the program in 2021 to offer content creators monthly payouts if they hit certain view counts and other metrics, per Engadget. Meta created this program to provide funding to creator monetization programs and better compete with TikTok for relevance in the new short-form video aspect of the social media industry.

According to Meta at the time, top-performing creators could earn as much as $35,000 a month. However, the program has had its ups and downs during the past few years, with creators noting that their pay had considerably shrunk since the program's launch.

Some content creators even mentioned that it became harder to make the same amount in bonuses in recent times compared to when it was 2021.