On this date, a creator with a million views on a TikTok video might earn a mere $20 to $40 from the creator fund, whereas the same views on a long-form YouTube video could yield ten times that amount. This forced a bifurcation in the career path: creators were either grinding endlessly on the "content hamster wheel" for brand deals (which were shrinking due to economic tightening) or they were pivoting frantically back to long-form content to survive.