X to pay more than YouTube? Elon Musk signals higher creator payouts; netizens call it 'game changer’

Tesla and SpaceX chief Elon Musk indicated on Wednesday that his social media company X was considering increasing payments to creators to compete with YouTube. Responding to a post on X of a user calling for higher payouts to creators, Elon Musk tagged the head of product Nikita Bier on the post, saying flat out “Ok, let's do it, but rigorously enforcing no gaming of the system.”

Elon Musk's response came after a user on X wrote,"if i were at x or elon, i’d crank creator payouts way way way way up. maybe even more than youtube (you can eat the cost to try to win agi). Because the platforms that actually pay will be the only ones that will have any authoritative content left once the llms finish eating the rest of the internet’s homework (which they have already done so for the most part)."

Bier also responded promptly to the tagged post of Musk, stating, "On it." "We have a new method that should wipe out 99% fraud," Bier added, addressing the second part of Musk's suggestion.

Netizens call it a ‘game changer’

Musk’s post also drew an enthusiastic reaction from independent journalist Nick Shirley, who recently gained attention for uncovering a daycare centre fraud in Minnesota. "Yes this would be amazing, X so far hasn’t been able to compete with YouTube Adsense but is a much more effective platform for videos to be shared and seen by the masses without censorship," Shirley said.

"I’ve been telling my friends for months to be posting on X but they haven’t made the effort because their time is better used (monetarily) on other platforms," he added.

Meanwhile, several other users joined the discussion as well, with many describing the move as a “game changer”. Some argued that platforms offering better payouts to creators would ultimately retain more credible content, as large language models increasingly consume much of the material available online.