TikTok isn’t going down without a fight, despite the ever-looming threat of a ban in the US. In this whole conflict that has taken a very nasty political turn, it’s easy to forget that this social media platform is a place for creators and artists to showcase their talent. TikTok is gently reminding us of this with their announcement about their $1 billion TikTok creator fund.

Content creators, regardless of genre or medium, are still human beings who have to survive in this world and make a living. Many of these creators manage to establish themselves despite working 9-to-5 jobs and providing for their families. While YouTube has found ways to truly give back to popular creators on the platform, TikTok creators have yet to see significant financial rewards unless they have a large enough following. That’s all set to change with the TikTok Creator Fund.

The TikTok Creator Fund is essentially a program that TikTokers in the US can apply for to receive a certain amount of money. The fund was originally supposed to be worth $200 million, but TikTok recently updated their stance and said that the fund will grow by over $1 billion in the US alone over the next 3 years and more than double that globally.

The basic idea of the fund is to give young, aspiring creators on TikTok the chance to build a career for themselves using the wildly popular social media platform and encourage other content creators to do the same. This fund is TikTok’s way of giving back to its creators and at the same time encouraging new creators to join the platform. Even though they don’t claim to, these kinds of initiatives do reflect that followers translate into currency in this day and age. The fund quantifies how much TikTok creators are investing in the app and how much they also stand to lose financially and in terms of followers.