YouTube has announced a $100 million fund that will pay the most popular content creators on its new Shorts platform, which it aims to use to compete with TikTok. The company stated in a blog post on Tuesday: "The Shorts Fund is just the first step in our journey to build a long-term model for monetizing short videos on YouTube." YouTube added that the fund will be launched in the coming months.
This move comes as YouTube, owned by Google, seeks to grow its user base and short video creators, serving as a response to its competitors among leading mobile social media platforms such as TikTok, Snap, and Instagram's Reels. YouTube is the latest to utilize a dedicated fund for influencers on its mobile platform.
In its first quarter earnings report, Alphabet, Google's parent company, revealed that YouTube generated $6.01 billion in ad revenue during the first quarter, representing almost a 50% increase year-over-year from $4 billion in the same quarter of 2020. Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet, noted in a company earnings conference that short videos garner 6.5 billion views daily worldwide. The company declined to provide further recent statistics on global and U.S. user bases, as reported by CNBC.
YouTube launched Shorts for all U.S. users earlier this month after a pilot launch earlier in the year. The company stated it will distribute the $100 million for the creators' fund starting in the coming months through 2022. Anyone eligible to participate in the fund must create "unique" short videos that delight the YouTube community, according to the company's blog.
YouTube mentioned that it would communicate with thousands of creators each month who receive the highest engagement and views, and it will also ask them to share feedback on the platform. A company spokesperson refused to disclose details about how much creators can earn or the metrics that will determine who gets paid, stating that the company will release more information in the coming months. The site also indicated that eligible content creators do not need to be part of the current Partners Program, which allows creators to monetize their videos on YouTube.
