Every social media platform has an unwritten bargain for creators—give us your attention, your creativity and your audience, and we will give you the tools to turn all three into a business. Change the bargain, and the content ecosystem changes with it.
That is why shifts in creator monetisation are rarely just about payouts. They can influence what creators make, how they make it, which voices gain traction and, ultimately, where brands choose to place their bets.
This is particularly relevant in India, where the creator economy has evolved into a serious marketing channel. From niche creators commanding highly engaged communities to established personalities building businesses around their influence, creators are increasingly becoming media in their own right.
Now, social media platform X is changing the rules of its creator economy. It has announced that it will replace its Creator Revenue Sharing programme with an Original Content Rewards Programme, shifting the focus towards rewarding original content.
Sneh Chheda - Associate Vice President, Schbang Fluence, believes the move will benefit independent analysts, journalists, domain experts and original visual creators who publish genuine work directly to their main feed. On the other hand, he says, “The biggest losers are meme pages, content aggregators, and engagement-bait accounts that built their reach by copying viral clips, stealing posts or spamming reply threads.”
However, there is a caveat. Chheda notes that the strict criteria for the new programme may risk shutting out genuine niche experts. “By completely ignoring views generated in reply threads, X penalises specialists whose primary value comes from hosting detailed Q&As or technical debates in the comments. Furthermore, demanding 500,000 views strictly on the main feed from paid Premium users sets a steep barrier for specialised researchers or analysts who publish high-quality work to smaller, highly targeted audiences,” he says.
But the changes are not just about reshaping who gets rewarded on X. They also raise a larger question about the platform’s ambitions. By tightening what counts as meaningful reach and placing greater emphasis on original content in the main feed, X appears to be moving closer to the territory long dominated by platforms such as Instagram and YouTube. The key question that arises then is whether this is a part of a broader push to compete more directly with those platforms for creators and their audiences.
Rohit Khanna, Co-Founder and COO, Eleve Media disagrees with the implication. “X isn’t trying to out-Instagram Instagram or replicate YouTube’s long-form video dominance. Instead, this pivot is a direct attack on platform quality. Under the previous revenue model, X inadvertently incentivised engagement farming, copy pasting, viral aggregation and reply-baiting. By shifting payouts exclusively to verified impressions on original content, X is trying to position itself as a high-signal, real-time commentary ecosystem,” he says.
The focus is essentially on building dominance in expert commentary and original thought. This, Chheda believes, is where X has a real edge. “Its advantage is speed and narrative influence. When major events unfold, decision-makers and journalists turn to X first, giving creators a direct line to shape public opinion much faster than anywhere else.”
Aakash Goplani, Vice President - Business, SoCheers, backs this, saying, "X allows creators to be much quicker, more personal, and more opinion-led in the way they express themselves. Short-form thoughts, reactions and opinions can become content, allowing creators to participate in conversations as they happen rather than always having to produce a highly packaged piece of content."
George Thomas, Head of Social Media and Marketing Communications, Confluencr further emphasises that no other platform rewards a same-hour take on breaking news, earnings, policy or cultural moments the way X's format does. “76 per cent of X users say conversations on the platform influence their purchases, and 89 per cent use it to discover new products. That's a discovery or opinion-formation role Instagram and YouTube don't really compete for," he says.
That advantage, however, does not automatically translate into a strong creator ecosystem, particularly in India. While X may have an edge in real-time commentary and influence, it still faces a tougher challenge in convincing top creators to build their businesses on the platform. For the new payout model to make a meaningful difference, X may need to offer creators more than monetisation alone.
Thomas notes, “Payout structure alone won't move India's top-tier creators, because the dollar amounts involved were already too small to be a primary income source even before the change. Given the 10x US-India earnings gap that existed under the old program, X needs to be upfront about whether Original Content Rewards meaningfully closes that gap or simply reshuffles who gets the same small pool of money, as Indian creators will do this math fast.”
The change also needs to go beyond payouts. Digital advisor Sanjay Trehan elaborates, “This is a step in the right direction. However, X needs to build interest-based communities to sustain top creators. Focus on originality, creation of communities, regular engagement and rewards, emphasis on short form video and extension into regional languages play would go a long way to attract creators and brands.”
Backing this, Khanna notes that to build a compelling long-term ecosystem, X must address three core operational points. “It first needs a true in-house brand collab setup, with native disclosure capabilities, known metrics of performance and agency connectivity. Secondly, India's sustained digital growth is led by regional languages streaming, so X has to get its algorithmic assessment right at a granular level, ensuring derivation and monetisation of raw non-English content, on a fair basis.”
Thirdly, Khanna emphasises that top creators require operational predicatability. “Rather than vague 'revenue assurances’, X must establish clear, transparent eligibility criteria and consistent monetisation policies to reduce commercial uncertainty and allow creators to build sustainable businesses on the platform.”
What’s in it for brands?
Why should brands care? Because the strength of X’s creator ecosystem will ultimately determine whether the platform can become a meaningful channel for creator-led brand building, rather than simply another place to distribute content. If X succeeds in attracting credible experts and original voices, brands could gain access to highly engaged, influential audiences around conversations where credibility and real-time relevance matter.
Khanna believes this will make X more compelling specifically for high-intent and narrative-led brand storytelling, rather than traditional consumer impulse marketing. “For sectors like BFSI, SaaS, Consumer Tech, Automotive and Fintech, X becomes a much stronger channel for executive branding, product launches and narrative PR. Brands can partner with credible original creators to drive nuanced conversations rather than superficial product placements,” he says.
However, for consumer, lifestyle, fashion, beauty, and FMCG brands—the categories that dominate India's ₹3,375 crore influencer market—Thomas believes that this change is not that relevant. “Those campaigns run on visual reach and Reels/Shorts virality, not written analysis, and X's average influencer engagement rate remains extremely low (0.09 per cent overall, with video posts only reaching 0.42 per cent), which is nowhere close to Instagram or YouTube benchmarks. No amount of originality incentive design fixes that gap for a fashion or beauty brand,” he says.
What rewarding original content really does is make the X feed much safer for brands. “By stripping away payout incentives for clickbait and stolen media, X ensures advertisers are spending budget alongside original, high-credibility voices, making it a far more reliable space for corporate, tech and financial storytelling,” Chheda says.
According to Goplani, the real opportunity for brands will emerge if X can build a strong ecosystem of creators producing original, platform-native content and give brands meaningful ways to participate in those conversations. "If that happens, X could offer something distinct from the more visual-led storytelling of Instagram and the long-form video ecosystem of YouTube."
But Trehan believes that it is too early to estimate the impact of this move for brands. “X has to demonstrate traction, build scale, create engaged communities and foster a self-perpetuating ecosystem to attract top brands. It needs to focus on short form video-based content and communities, and should co-opt its engaged users to create compelling content. Brands will follow,” he says.
Ultimately, X’s new payout model is less about the money it puts in creators’ pockets and more about the kind of ecosystem it wants to build. If the platform can turn its advantage in real-time conversation and expert commentary into a stronger, more predictable creator economy, it could become significantly more relevant to both creators and brands. The opportunity is clear, but whether X can convert its influence into a sustainable creator and brand ecosystem remains the bigger test.
