(Yicai Global) Nov. 17 -- Tencent Holdings’ open content platform, which distributes short videos, pictures and articles across the Chinese internet giant’s various apps, has discontinued its incentive program ‘Project Dawn’ as content creators complained that they were being shortchanged.

Shenzhen-based Tencent launched ‘Project Dawn’ in July, saying it will spend CNY10 million (USD1.5 million) to get multichannel networks, which act as brokers for key opinion leaders, to lure content creators to its Open Media platform.

However, lax management and the poor design of some products have meant that the project did not pan out as intended, Tencent Open Media said on its WeChat account today.

It transpires that the multichannel networks were taking as much as 90 percent of the CNY2,000 (USD313) one-off incentive fee given to each creator, the KOLs said. They were also supposed to be paid CNY30 (USD4.70) for every 10,000 video views. But it was left up to the networks to decide whether the rewards would be issued and so these were seldom seen.

A number of KOLs also complained that after they agreed to join the project, some of the multichannel networks labeled their videos as exclusive content without their consent and even accused other platforms, where the videos had already been posted, of piracy. As a result, some KOLs' accounts have been blocked on other sites.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Kim Taylor