Musical.ly Now Officially Part of Bytedance

More than a month ago, Musical.ly had announced that it was being acquired by Toutiao, a social media giant based in China, and owned by Bytedance, in a deal reported to be worth somewhere between $800 million to $1 billion. Well, the acquisition deal has officially closed, and for good measure, Musical.ly also took the opportunity to launch a Creator Fund worth an estimated $50 million.

With regards to the Creator Fund, Musical.ly is looking to utilize it in order to start investments in education, training, and community enrichment on its platform. Moreover, the fund will also help in discovering and developing fresh Musical.ly talents. According to the company, the investments via the Creator Fund should be good for the next couple of years.

So exactly which types of programs will get to enjoy support from the Creator Fund? One example is a university scholarship fund that aims to funnel financial assistance for college programs, including those that involve digital media and video content creation. Of course, to be able to avail of such scholarships and grants, interested parties will have to meet certain requirements, including the usual attendance and academic performance metrics. 

The Creator Fund can also be used to help set up a venue for content creators to be able to sell or trade stuff such as augmented reality (AR) driven creations or original music. Such a marketplace can also be used in striking partnerships with well known brands or signing up for web based workshops. Basically what happens is that the marketplace will serve as a venue for the exchange of any products or services, whether physical or virtual.

Then there is the Co-Innovation Partner Program. This essentially facilitates collaborations with media and content partners for the purpose of exploring new formats and means for visual storytelling, especially on mobile.

While it is true that the Musical.ly brand is insanely popular with teenagers and even pre-teen users, the Creator Fund will focus most of its attention in helping those old enough to go to college. After all, one of the aims of the fund was to help candidates eventually become stars and even make a living for themselves.

As for Musical.ly, it officially joins Bytedance with a 60 million strong customer base around the world, with a big percentage coming from the United States. Now that the acquisition deal has been completed, the brand now gets a chance to enjoy more exposure in different parts of the world, especially in Asian countries like China, South Korea, and Japan.