YouTube announced on Tuesday, May 11, that a $100 million fund will pay the most popular creators on its latest platform, YouTube Shorts, which is set to be a competitor of TikTok.
YouTube Shorts to Pay Creators
YouTube said in a blog post that the Shorts Fund is just the first step in their journey to build a long-term monetization model for Shorts on YouTube.
The company added the fund will be launched in the coming months.
The fund comes as Google-owned YouTube tries to grow its user and creator base for its short-form video product, which is the company’s answer to mobile-first social media competitors like TikTok, Instagram’s Reels, and Snapchat.
YouTube is the latest to use a designed creator fund to try and court influencers on its mobile platform.
Google-parent Alphabet reported that in its first-quarter earnings, YouTube brought in $6.01 billion in advertising revenue during the quarter. That is almost a 50% increase on a year-over-year basis from $4 billion, according to CNBC.
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Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said on the company’s earnings call that YouTube Shorts is garnering 6.5 billion daily views globally. The company declined to give more recent statistics for global and the US user bases.
YouTube launched Shorts to all of the US users earlier this month, after launching in beta at the beginning of the year.
The company said that it will distribute the $100 million creator fund beginning in the coming months, and all through 2022. Anyone is eligible to participate in the fund by creating unique and fun YouTube Shorts that delight the community.
Furthermore, the internet giant said that it will reach out to thousands of creators every month who received the most engagement and views. It will also ask those creators to share feedback on the platform.
A YouTube spokesperson declined to share more details about how much creators can earn, or the specific metrics that will determine who gets paid, and said that the company would release more information in the coming months.
YouTube said that eligible creators do not have to be a part of its Partner Program, which is its existing program that lets creator monetize their YouTube videos, The Verge reported.
What is YouTube Shorts?
YouTube Shorts is Google’s response to TikTok and Instagram Reels. The idea is that users can easily and quickly create short 15-second videos from the YouTube app.
Just like TikTok and Reels, there are several editing tools that users can use. They can string clips together, add music and text, adjust playback speed, and more.
YouTube Shorts have a different viewing experience. Like the other short-form video platforms, Shorts are meant to be viewed in portrait orientation on the phone. Shorts are 15-second videos created with mobile devices and are meant to be viewed on mobile devices, How to Geek noted.
It also has its own section on the Home tab in the YouTube mobile apps for Android, iPhone, and iPad. Since the videos are short, users can flip through them quickly and watch a bunch of the videos in a couple of minutes.
Once a user open a Short, they being playing one after the next. Users can swipe vertically from one video to the next.
Related Article: Newest TikTok Rival YouTube Shorts Beta Rollout To Be Launched Soon in the U.S.
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Written by Sophie Webster
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