Trybe Paid Creators $33.6 Million as It Ports TikTok Shop Commissions to Meta Ads

Creators had earned $33.6 million on Trybe as of October 27, including $11.4 million in the previous 30 days, according to co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer Dylan Harari. The marketplace, live since the creator app launched in March 2026, applies TikTok Shop's commission model to paid ads — starting with Meta, which Harari estimates takes 90% of a direct-to-consumer brand's paid digital spend.

Harari calls the product "TikTok Shop for the rest of the Internet," a phrase he credits to someone else. After roughly 10 years across brands, creators and talent management — including a stint as Chief Revenue Officer and later co-CEO of Fanfix — Harari's operating thesis is that the creator who sells the most for a brand may have no audience at all.

What does performance pay look like in practice?

Each brand sets its own terms. The most common structure pays a share of sales: a 10% commission on a $100 order sends $10 to the creator's phone. Trybe charges those brands 1.5% of gross merchandise value. Apps and software companies generally pay on ad spend instead, at a Trybe fee of 1.25% of that spend. In Harari's example, a creator on 15% of spend earns $1,500 when a brand puts $10,000 behind a video. Wispr Flow uses Trybe on that model.

The risk sits with the creator. A video a brand never runs earns nothing, and Harari admits some brands are "lazy" about it: "If the brand doesn't run a video as an ad," the creator's reaction is, "I made an amazing video and it went nowhere." Trybe shows creators a score of each brand's record of running videos before filming starts. Of the videos brands approved in the last week of September, just under 70% already had ad spend behind them; Trybe declined to share the figure for all submitted videos.

The earnings distribution is unverified. Spread across all 341,000 registered creators, the most recent 30 days of earnings come to about $33 each, and Trybe declined to share median monthly earnings. Of that creator base, 94,000 joined in the previous 30 days. Trybe also counts more than 30,000 registered brand accounts, has not started outbound sales, and would not say how many brands actively spend.

Why Harari bets against follower counts

Large brands still evaluate creators by audience size, a habit Harari challenges directly. "You're confusing Influencer Marketing with UGC, and these are two completely opposite things," he tells multibillion-dollar companies that ask how many of a creator's fans will buy. He describes Trybe as "anti influencer marketing."

"I think the Influencer Marketing bubble has largely burst," Harari said, citing "an epidemic of people on Instagram with a million followers who cannot get a brand deal anymore." A relatable creator whose Instagram is mostly "friends and family from like their hometown" can generate six figures in sales from one video running on Meta, he argues. CreatorIQ research published in June found creator content accounts for 44% of paid media creative on average, and Harari sees brands getting more selective about who is truly influential.

TikTok Shop, estimated at $11.8 billion in U.S. sales in the first half of 2026 per Momentum Works — double the prior year — trained sellers to work on commission. Harari says some are now seeking a second platform due to policy violations, saturation and weaker results than 2024.

From Haus to a multi-channel marketplace

Trybe emerged when Lukas Pakter, founder of the activewear brand Haus, called looking for "my Steve Ballmer." "I fell hook, line and sinker for that," Harari said. "How about me?" Trybe was set up as a separate company with Haus as flagship brand, launched in February 2026 for brands bringing their own creators, and followed with the creator app in March.

Harari's advice to brands is to treat creators as a team rather than a sourcing task: cast a wide net, keep performers, hold weekly calls, add incentives. "It's your tribe. These are my people, we're one team," he said. Trybe supports TikTok Shop, AppLovin and Meta ads, with YouTube, Google and Snapchat expected to follow. Harari's stated goal is for a creator earning $3,000 a month with one brand to reach "6 grand if not 9 grand if not 12."