Creators are cashing in on a "Facebook renaissance"

"Facebook's new content monetization program is booming, and Indonesian creators are leading the charge, giving the platform a much-needed boost to compete with YouTube and TikTok. The program has grown from under 3 million to 12 million participants in just over a year. Accounts in Bahasa Indonesia made up nearly 15% of the platform's total monetized accounts in January 2026, forming the largest group of non-English content on the platform."

"Until January 2025, Facebook's content monetization program was splintered across platforms, and growing marginally around the world, with just about 2.7 million total users enrolled. Creators often prioritized rival platforms like YouTube and TikTok because of their younger audiences, better reach, and engagement opportunities. YouTube paid out $70 billion to creators between 2021 and 2023 through its well-reputed partner program, while Facebook only doled out $2 billion in 2024."

"To court more creators, Facebook combined all of its monetization schemes, and introduced a new monetization program in October 2024 that rewarded creators on the performance of their content rather than with a share of the ad revenue, similar to TikTok. Meta did not respond to Rest of World 's request for comment. The strategy has driven a massive surge of participants in the monetization program."

Facebook combined its fragmented monetization schemes into a single program in October 2024 that rewards creators based on content performance rather than ad-revenue shares, mirroring TikTok. The unified program expanded from about 2.7 million monetized accounts in January 2025 to 12 million by January 2026. Over 8 million monetized accounts are in English, while Bahasa Indonesia accounts reached 1.7 million—about 15% of total—making it the largest non-English group. Spanish and Hindi follow with roughly 850,000 and 280,000 accounts. YouTube paid $70 billion to creators between 2021 and 2023, while Facebook paid $2 billion in 2024. Data comes from the Meta Monetization Archive by nonprofit What To Fix. Meta did not respond to requests for comment.

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