Instagram Offers Incentives to Use Reels

Instagram is paying its users to use its Reels platform.

Instagram is paying its users to use its Reels platform.

Last year, Instagram introduced Reels, a secondary social media platform designed to house short, creative videos as its primary form of interaction. If that sounds similar to TikTok, that’s likely not a coincidence, as multiple social media giants have been attempting to go after TikTok’s surging popularity over the past year. In order to entice users to use Reels over TikTok, however, Instagram is offering an incentive: cash.

Reels launched this incentive program back in July, but thanks to reports published this week by TechCrunch and Business Insider, we’ve gotten a clearer picture of just how much money Instagram is actually funneling into this endeavor. According to reports, smaller content creators using the platform were offered approximately $600-$800 should their videos reach a certain level of views. This is actually on the lower end of the spectrum, as more popular creators bringing in tens of millions of views in a single month were offered up to $35,000.

Apparently, Instagram is still workshopping this system, which is why the amount of money offered varies so widely. “We’re continuing to test payments as we roll out to more creators, and expect them to fluctuate while we’re still getting started,” the company told TechCrunch.