Substack is doubling down on video with new mobile video publishing and monetization tools — as TikTok’s future in the U.S. remains uncertain.
On Thursday, Substack — a platform traditionally known for writing — announced that it would allow creators to monetize their videos and post video content directly from the app.
Substack creators can now publish video posts directly from the Substack app — a feature previously limited to desktop. This update gives creators full control over publishing and monetizing their video content from their smartphone devices, making it easier than ever to connect with their audience. Videos can be instantly shared via email, app notifications, or both, streamlining content distribution.
Previously, Substack creators have been able to share videos in Notes but this feature doesn’t support paywalls.
Substack says that video creators worried about TikTok’s future can use its platform to earn from their videos through subscriptions. Unlike TikTok, Substack lets creators reach their audience directly without relying on algorithms.
Once a video is published, creators can track views, monitor new subscriber growth, and estimate revenue generated from paid subscriptions. Creators can also analyze trends over time to assess their content’s performance.
Currently, creators can only paywall entire video posts published in the app. In the future, Substack plans to enable creators to show specific portions of the video to free subscribers as a teaser.
Substack began this push towards video following the brief ban of TikTok in January.
“There’s going to be a world of people who are much more focused on videos,” Substack Co-founder Hamish McKenzie tells CNBC. “That is a huge world that Substack is only starting to penetrate.”
“If TikTok gets banned for political reasons, there’s nothing to do with the work you’ve done, but it really affects your life,” McKenzie adds. “The only and surefire guard against that is if you don’t place your audience in the hands of some other volatile system who doesn’t care about what happens to your livelihood.”
American social media users briefly had no access to TikTok after a law banning it on national security grounds came into effect on January 19.
However, TikTok resumed services hours later and restored access to its 170 million users in the U.S. after Trump issued an executive order to delay the app’s ban.
However, despite this, Google and Apple still have not reinstated TikTok in their app stores and the future of TikTok in the U.S. still remains uncertain. It is unclear whether ByteDance, TikTok’s China-based owner, would be willing to sell the platform, even if the deal were facilitated by Trump.
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