X Is Rolling Out a New Revenue Model for Creators — But Can It Win Them Over?

In September, X is rolling out an entirely new creator revenue program — the Original Content Rewards Program. According to the official announcement, the program will reward users who produce original, high-quality content that reflects their own creativity and expertise. SpaceXAI leadership told Digiday that the company is calling this "the year of the creator," which is why the platform is overhauling its monetization system. But the project's biggest test still lies ahead: media buyers and creator-agency representatives say the platform's stream of controversial content is dragging down its value as an advertising and creator platform relative to other networks.

The new model replaces the existing revenue-sharing program launched in July 2023, which let any user with a premium subscription earn money once they racked up at least 5 million organic views over three months and had at least 500 verified followers. The flaw in that system was that even users who simply reposted someone else's content, aggregated news, or drove engagement through ragebaiting could still collect a payout. According to Allegra Jacchia, SpaceXAI's head of creator products, "the goal is to reward creators who bring new ideas and new content, and to emphasize quality over quantity."

The new program launches on September 8, a few months after the unveiling of Creator Connect, an AI-powered tool that matches brands with creators suited to their campaign goals. Monique Pinatrelli, SpaceXAI's head of global advertising, noted that sports, technology, business, finance, and gaming remain the platform's most popular categories. "We're now building tools so that people knowledgeable in these areas can earn a better living, and so brands can find them more easily," she said. In 2024, X renewed its partnership with the NFL and launched a dedicated NFL Portal section on the platform.

Industry reactions are mixed. Doug Landers, co-founder of the Greenlight Group agency, says X has never been a great platform from a monetization standpoint, but it's unmatched at rallying fan communities: "Take any artist, athlete, or creator with a genuinely dedicated fan base — you'll see the same thing on X: fans translating, archiving, organizing, and promoting content, something no marketing budget can buy." Still, Viral Nation CEO Mat Micheli says his creators haven't talked about X in years, and Mediassociates' Karissa Tuccio typically doesn't recommend the platform to her finance and tech clients. Matt Grandchamp, head of revenue at NowThis Media, argues that "the risk isn't worth the reward" — his company doesn't even link to its X account on its own website. Even so, Grandchamp doesn't rule out media companies resuming regular posting on the platform, since it would amount to an extra, passive revenue stream requiring little effort.

The caution shown by creators and brands stems from the changes that followed Elon Musk's 2022 acquisition of X (formerly Twitter). Around that time, the verification checkmark stopped being reserved for public figures and began going to any user with an X Premium subscription. The Trust and Safety Council was disbanded in 2022, and by 2024, according to Forbes, nearly 80% of the engineers who worked in that area had been laid off. Mustafa Aijaz, vice president at SoaR, says advertisers remain cautious because they don't know what content their ads will appear next to in the feed — though Pinatrelli maintains that the platform takes safety seriously and has done significant work on brand safety. Per Business Insider, X's ad revenue still hasn't returned to pre-Musk levels, but it posted its first year-over-year increase since 2021, and Pinatrelli says nearly all the advertisers who left the platform in 2024 have come back.

Content-related problems remain a live issue. A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) found that X's algorithm is tuned to maximize engagement, with a negative correlation found in the content shown to users with certain political leanings — particularly Democrats. Musk himself actively engages with accounts accused of stoking outrage and spreading disinformation: on August 20, he replied "true" to a post from The Rabbit Hole, an account with 1.1 million followers, that was full of false claims about George Floyd's death. On top of that, lawsuits continue to swirl around Grok, SpaceXAI's generative AI tool: it's alleged that Grok was used to produce and distribute sexual content generated from images of minors, with the company suing one individual while another family has separately sued the platform itself.

Industry experts don't see this as a step that will fundamentally shift the dynamic. Aijaz of SoaR says he doesn't expect agencies to shift budgets immediately after the announcement, but if the feed genuinely changes over the next quarter or two, that would be stronger evidence. Tuccio of Mediassociates, for her part, isn't convinced that original creator content alone can change the platform's overall dynamic. So while X's new rewards program is an attempt to win creators over, its success will largely hinge on how quickly the platform can repair its reputation.