Report: Amazon Offering Influencers Below-Market Rates to Feed Its Tik-Tok Competitor

Amazon is reportedly offering lower-than-market rates to influencers as it works to build a TikTok-like feed of photos and videos for its new social commerce project.

The retailer is offering influencers $25 per video featuring two or more of its products at a time when creators typically charge an average of $212 for the type of content it is looking for, Bloomberg reported Friday (Aug. 18).

In addition, Amazon is asking each influencer for hundreds of videos while other buyers typically ask for no more than five at a time, according to the report.

Amazon did not immediately reply to PYMNTS’ request for comment.

The offer was made when Amazon sent an email to select influencers, asking them to submit videos highlighting two or more products from its web store, according to the Bloomberg report. With a $25 per video cap set at a total of 35,000 videos, this would equate to $875,000 worth of content.

In recent years, Amazon has continued to rely on the power of free customer reviews to entice shoppers, the report said.

Now it has launched Inspire, a TikTok-like feed of photos and videos customized to each users’ interests and promoting products sold on the site, per the report. With this expansion into social commerce, the retailer needs a steady stream of fresh videos and products being created to keep consumers engaged.

However, many influencers argued that $25 per video isn’t enough, the report said. One creator noted that producing the content required takes a lot of time and research and “shouldn’t be treated as a side gig.”

Amazon unveiled Inspire in December, joining its Big Tech cohorts in trying to capture the social commerce market.

Oliver Messenger, Amazon’s director of shopping, said at the time that short-form video “is an incredibly useful medium of helping people discover and understand products.”

The lure of short-form videos to influence shoppers and move products is one of the hottest topics in the world of eCommerce, PYMNTS reported at the time.

PYMNTS research has found that 14% of consumers buy items through social media. Those who do so rate their experience as highly satisfactory, according to “Tracking the Digital Payments Takeover: Monetizing Social Media,” a PYMNTS and Amazon Web Services (AWS) collaboration.