Meta Platforms is sweetening the pot for creators on Facebook and Instagram by deferring revenue sharing to 2024 and allowing paying subscribers on other platforms access to subscriber-only Facebook Groups. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says Meta is testing an Instagram destination creators can use to get discovered and paid for content. Meta will also be opening its Reels bonus program to more Facebook users and letting a wider range of creators participate in Facebook’s Stars tipping feature. The company is also expanding last month’s Instagram NFT test as eBay announces purchase of the KnownOrigin NFT marketplace.

The Verge calls the KnownOrigin purchase (for an undisclosed price) eBay’s “biggest move yet into the world of digital collectibles.” In announcing its new monetization practices, Meta describes NFT digital collectibles as “a crucial part of our long-term commitment to creators” as the company builds for the metaverse and invests in Web3.

Meta is expanding Instagram’s NFT test to “more creators and a handful of additional countries,” and says “creators and collectors will be able to share their digital collectibles across Facebook and Instagram after we begin rolling out the feature on Facebook with select U.S. creators at a later date. We’ll also soon start to test NFTs in Instagram Stories with Spark AR.”

Spark AR is an Instagram filter app developed at Meta by AR influencer Luke Hurd that moved out of closed beta in mid-2019.

In November, AR Insider reported the “buried” stat that “700 million people” now use Meta’s AR lens effects monthly, pegging total consumption at 80 billion across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Portal. Coming on the heels of Zuckerberg’s big VR prototype reveals, Meta may have so much technology up its sleeve as to present  messaging challenges.

In addition to its NFT news, a highlights list of creator economy monetization tools includes:

• Facebook Stars — tokens fans can buy and send to support creators are now available on Facebook Live through on-demand videos and soon on Facebook Reels for creators with at least 1,000 followers in 24 territories.
• Facebook Reels Play — a bonus program launched last year by invite-only to let creators earn through public Reels will soon be open to all U.S. creators (via an application process that requires at least five original Reels that received more than 100,000 plays in the past 30 days). Meta is also testing the crossposting of Reels on Instagram and Facebook.
• Creator Marketplace on Instagram — where brands and creators can collaborate, will soon test a feature that allows creators to notify brands of topics they’re interested in, allowing individual users to “manage their brand deals without ever leaving the app.”

TechCrunch points out the Instagram marketplace approach is “similar to that of TikTok, which “allows brands to discover top TikTok personalities for their marketing campaigns.”