Amazon Offers Influencers $25 Per Video, Sparking Chorus of LOLs

Amazon, looking to amp up its TikTok-like shopping feed, has called on influencers to make hundreds of videos apiece. But its offer of $25 a pop -- about a tenth of the going rate -- was widely mocked on social media. From a report: Amazon sent an email to select influencers, asking them to submit videos showing two or more products. The e-commerce giant said it would pay up to $12,500 per creator in exchange for a maximum of 500 videos that meet the company's criteria, according to screenshots of the message posted to social media. Amazon plans to cap the initiative at 35,000 videos, or the equivalent of $875,000 worth. Last December, Amazon launched Inspire, a TikTok-like feed of photos and videos customized to users' interests and featuring products that can be purchased on Amazon's web store. The goal is to help consumers browse and discover products serendipitously, as they do on social media platforms, rather simply searching for specific items. Amazon for years relied mostly on free customer reviews to entice shoppers. It's been adding more advertising to the site, mostly in the form of paid placement in search results similar to Google.

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