YouTube, in its effort to counter TikTok’s unequalled growth, has announced new initiatives for YouTube Shorts to compete in the short-form video arena. The platform rolled out new revenue-sharing tools for content creators on its YouTube Shorts video products.
Hitherto, TikTok has been dominant in this area as it has appealed to the younger creator generation with its simplicity and money-making opportunities, and with this, it has been so successful that other platforms have copied its features; YouTube has added a watermark to short videos.
Until TikTok’s surge, YouTube had been the most sustainable source of income for content creators, who received a share of the revenue from the ads that appeared with their videos. Thousands have made YouTube their full-time job with the partner program unveiled a decade ago. The platform has now decided to return to primacy.
According to the YouTube announcement, shorts will soon be eligible for monetization, and creators will keep 45% of the revenue generated from viewership.
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This is a significant update for creators who earn income on YouTube. Unlike long-form videos, which allow creators to profit from ad revenue, shorts have no direct path to monetization. YouTube has a “Shorts” “fund” that awards money to creators for popular videos. However, that’s not the same as a residual income stream.
“It’s a really big moment for creators,” said Amjad Hanif, YouTube’s vice president of product management. “When we launched the partner program 15 years ago, it was the first of its kind and kicked off the creator economy. This brings all the goodness and benefits creators have felt from revenue sharing and brings it over to short form as well.”
YouTube Programs and Eligibility
YouTube announced that, as of early 2023, YouTube Shorts creators would be able to apply to its YouTube Partner Program (YPP) provided they meet a threshold of 1,000 subscribers and 10 million short views over the previous 90 days. The YouTube Partner Program was started in 2007 and gave creators access to YouTube’s tools and ways to make money. It also allows revenue sharing from ads being served on your content.
The creators will also be able to take 45% of the revenue generated from ads that run between short videos.
“This seems like a giant attempt to grab frustrated TikTokers,” said Serena Kerrigan, a TikTok star with over half a million followers.
YouTube’s new revenue-sharing program could make TikTok less important to young people who make videos online, which has been the case so far.
According to the statement of Amjad Hanif, Vice President of Creator Products, on YouTube’s official blog post, “In Shorts, ads run between videos in the Shorts Feed.” So, every month, revenue from these ads will be added together and used to reward short-shorts creators and help cover the cost of music licensing. From the overall amount allocated to creators, they will keep 45% of the revenue, distributed based on their share of total short views. The revenue share remains the same, whether they use music or not.
Those creators who do not meet the required threshold to join the YouTube Partner Program will still make money through early access to fan funding features like Super Thanks, Super Chat, Super Stickers, and Channel Memberships, which allow fans to pay creators for certain features.
“This new lower tier will allow creators to join much earlier in their journey as a creator and earn directly from our fan fencing products,” Hanif said.
YouTube Benefits VS TikTok’s
Adding revenue sharing to short-form videos is a significant change in the ecosystem of creators. No other platform offers revenue sharing. For instance, TikTok, for instance, pays creators out of a fixed pool of money called its “creator fund.” However, the more creators who join the fund, the more ways the money is split.
In order to give Creators more Benefits, YouTube said it is also “launching Super Thanks for Shorts in beta to thousands of creators, with a complete rollout expected next year.” Viewers can show appreciation for their favourite shorts, and creators can interact with their fans through purchased, highlighted Super Thanks comments. And we’re 2020, and the popularity of short-form video has exploded on YouTube, with over 30B daily views and 1.5B monthly logged-in users.
In 2021, YouTube launched a $100 million fund to reward YouTube Shorts creators for their most viewed and engaging content throughout 2021 and 2022. TikTok launched a $200 million creator fund in 2020, while Snap Inc. launched a new fund late last year for top performers of its video product.