In the middle of its battle with Roku over its long-form premium TV offer, YouTube has turned its sights to its historic core and has launched a $100 million fund, distributed over the course of 2021-2022, for short-form video creators.
The company launched the YouTube Shorts Beta to the US in March 2021 and the programme, and associated funding, is now available in India as well as the US. YouTube sees the Shorts project as bringing a new way to watch and create on YouTube, and sees the new development as taking a fresh look at what it means to monetise and reward creators and artists for their content.
In practice, YouTube says the scheme will see it reach out to creators whose Shorts received the most engagement and views to reward them for their contributions. The company will also ask these creators to share their feedback with us so we can continue to improve the product experience. The Fund is not limited to creators in the YouTube partner programme; creators will be eligible to participate if they create original content for Shorts and adhere to community guidelines.
“The Shorts Fund is the first step in our journey to build a monetisation model for Shorts on YouTube. This is a top priority for us, and will take us some time to get it right,” explained Amy Singer director, global partnership enablement for YouTube Shorts.
“We’re excited to start rewarding creators for their contributions through the Shorts Fund. At the same time, we’ll expand our Shorts player across more surfaces on YouTube to help people find new creators, artists and Shorts to enjoy. We will also begin to test and iterate on ads to better understand their performance. YouTube has helped an entire generation of creators and artists turn their creativity into businesses. We’ve paid more than $30 billion to creators, artists, and media companies over the last three years, and we remain deeply committed to supporting the next generation of mobile creators.”
In practice, YouTube says the scheme will see it reach out to creators whose Shorts received the most engagement and views to reward them for their contributions. The company will also ask these creators to share their feedback with us so we can continue to improve the product experience. The Fund is not limited to creators in the YouTube partner programme; creators will be eligible to participate if they create original content for Shorts and adhere to community guidelines.
“The Shorts Fund is the first step in our journey to build a monetisation model for Shorts on YouTube. This is a top priority for us, and will take us some time to get it right,” explained Amy Singer director, global partnership enablement for YouTube Shorts.
“We’re excited to start rewarding creators for their contributions through the Shorts Fund. At the same time, we’ll expand our Shorts player across more surfaces on YouTube to help people find new creators, artists and Shorts to enjoy. We will also begin to test and iterate on ads to better understand their performance. YouTube has helped an entire generation of creators and artists turn their creativity into businesses. We’ve paid more than $30 billion to creators, artists, and media companies over the last three years, and we remain deeply committed to supporting the next generation of mobile creators.”
