Layoffs

Instagram's top executive says the company has spent 'hundreds of millions' of dollars wooing creators

Instagram has spent big bucks on wooing content creators.

Adam Mosseri, Instagram's top executive, took the stand on Thursday to testify during the ongoing FTC antitrust trial against Meta. The FTC has accused Meta of acting as a monopoly in personal social networking with its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp.

Mosseri testified that the company has "invested hundreds of millions, maybe a billion or two, throughout my tenure" in creators.

Mosseri said the money included both incentives as well as the physical infrastructure that makes it possible for the app to expand a creator's reach.

In 2018, Mosseri took over as head of Instagram after the app's original co-founders stepped down from the company. Since then, creators have gradually become more and more of a core focus for the Meta-owned company.

Instagram has launched (and shut down) a handful of creator monetization programs since 2020 to compete with other platforms like YouTube and TikTok, which also pay creators. Some programs, like Instagram's "Bonuses," that pay creators for content like reels or photos, are limited and invite-only. Earlier this year, Meta had offered some creators between $2,500 to $50,000 a month to post content to Instagram.

"We believe creators are becoming more and more relevant over time," Mosseri said at another point during his testimony. "We are just seeing more and more power shift from institutions to individuals across the industry."