Even though TikTok has seen immense growth and has been extremely successful, it still hasn’t properly figured out how to properly reward its own creators. TikTok overtook YouTube in watch time last year, but YouTube foresaw the growth in this market and launched YouTube Shorts to get their fingers into the pie. Now, YouTube has announced a major change to its Partner Programme that will allow its short-form Shorts creators to make good money on its platform.
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YouTube hopes to lure creators away from TikTok and onto its platform with this move – Shorts have been seen as in testing until now, but no more. The changes to YouTube’s Partner Programme will come into affecet “early next year.” It is the right time to strike for YouTube, as many very successful TikTok creators have been complaining about low creator fund payouts, especially compared to content on YouTube. They would get millions upon million of views per TikTok, but very little reward.
“This is the first time real revenue sharing is being offered for short-form video on any platform at scale,” YouTube Chief Product Officer Neal Mahon said during an event announcing the news. The rules of the Partner Programme are now being changed so that creators with at least 1,000 subscribers who get 10 million views on Shorts in a 90-day period can apply.
Like TikTok, ads on Shorts appear between videos in the feed. Revenue from the ads will be pooled and split among creators, Mohan said. Creators will get a 45 percent cut of the ads, regardless of whether they use music (which will be fully licenced by YouTube). “Each creator is paid on their share of total Shorts views, and this revenue share remains the same, even if they use music,” Mahon explained. The company also said it would start testing its tipping feature, called Super Thanks, in Shorts “with a complete rollout expected next year.”
