Privilege or equality? A natural experiment with content monetization in social media

Tipping, as a new model of content monetization, is being adopted widely. Leveraging the policy changes in one of the largest social media platforms, we examined when and how tip-based content monetization incentives work. We adopt framing theory to explain different attitudes toward content monetization incentives between status-framed and benefit-framed users. Our results show that a hierarchical content monetization program decreases status-framed users' content contribution, whereas a general accessible content monetization program will effectively motivate the content supply of all users. Moreover, we identify the underlying mechanisms for heterogeneous content monetization effects by unbinding signaling and rewarding effects of tipping feature.