It wants to recreate Vine by rewarding bigger stars.
Now that Byte has had a chance to reel in some users, the team is outlining another part of its Vine revival: how it’ll pay its stars. The team has published initial details of a Partner Program that will pay creators who pull in large audiences for their looping videos. Byte will create a “Partner Pool” every 120 days, and will pay those partners in four 30-day instalments based on the viewership for those periods. The more views a partner gets, the higher they’ll climb a “Viewership Bracket” ladder that pays them more money. Everyone in a bracket will be paid the same amount, so Byte won’t necessarily play favorites.
The money for the pool will come from ads, but Byte stressed that you won’t see pre-rolls, mid-feed ads or retargeting. The pilot phase of the program will funnel all of the ad revenue to Partner Program members, although that’s clearly going to change once the effort launches in earnest.
Don’t expect to start making a living as a Byte influencer for a while. The pilot is due to start in the US in 60 to 90 days, and it’ll be invitation-only at first. The company is promising “multiple ways” to help creators get paid, though, so you may have other ways to rake in cash if and when you hit the big time. The challenge, of course, is building up Byte in the first place. It’s still soon to know if Byte will recreate Vine’s heyday and lure people away from the likes of Instagram or TikTok, or meet the untimely fate of many other social media apps.
