YouTube, in its latest, has decided to give its competitor “TikTok” a run for the money competition. The world’s most popular online video platform YouTube announced on 11th May that it would be rewarding money to its creators from its $100 million YouTube Shorts fund for making short videos that are most viewed and have the most engaging content during 2021-2022. One thing to remember is that creators can’t “apply” to claim their reward; instead, YouTube will contact and reach the creators themselves whose videos have made an impressionable mark. 

“The Shorts Fund is just the first step in our journey to build a long-term monetization model for Shirts on YouTube,” the company said in a blog post. This fund is expected to be launched in the coming months, and the rewards will be paid out to the creators throughout 2021 and 2022.

YouTube Shorts is set to give a tough competition to other apps like TikTok, Snap, and Instagram’s Reels. YouTube will try to grow its user base and the creator base through its Short video feature and the lucrative $100 million reward announcement. YouTube is the latest and certainly not the last to make such a move and dedicate a specific fund to encourage creators to create content on their platform.

YouTube Shorts is said to become more widely available on the platform gaining more views. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said that “Shorts is garnering 6.5 billion daily views globally.” Shorts was initially launched in the U.S to its entire user base at the beginning of 2021.

YouTube, in its blog post, said that anyone who creates Shorts is eligible to participate in the YouTube Shorts fund; the content should be “unique,” “delight for the YouTube community,” and “should suffice to YouTube’s community guidelines.” YouTube is expected to reach thousands of creators every month and reward them for their Short content with the most views and engagement.

YouTube has not clarified yet with information regarding how much money creators can earn or how it will be determined who gets paid. YouTube also stressed that only Short content that is unique and original would be eligible to gain rewards, whereas it didn’t clarify how it will figure out whether the content is already posted in TikTok, Reels, or Snap.

YouTube has also rolled out feature updates to its Shorts, like everyone will soon be able to remix audio from YouTube videos, as well as add automatic captions, record up to 60 seconds with the Shorts camera, add clips from the phone’s gallery to recordings, and apply basic color-correction filters. More features are expected to be released shortly.In addition to the launch of YouTube’s Shorts Fund, the company also announced that it is expanding its Shorts player feature to more locations on YouTube to help audiences discover short-form video material and is planning to begin testing advertisements for Shorts as well. 

As Google’s massive video site YouTube is trying to tap into the field of short video format, other apps such as TikTok, which setting its bar even higher than it already is by announcing that its fund would grow over $1 billion in the U.S only and it would be more than double globally. TikTok, in a recent update, has indicated that it is catching up to YouTube, where TikTok has recently given some of its users the option to record videos that are three minutes long, instead of its standard 60-minute video format.However, the billions of dollars paid to YouTube uploaders are a precedent for YouTube paying its creators directly; something TikTok has just dabbled in. The TikTok celebrities who make the most money do so by sponsorships and brand deals rather than TikTok itself.

Google’s parent company Alphabet said that YouTube bought in $6 billion in the first quarter as advertising revenue, which is up nearly 50% from its earlier revenue of $4 billion. Apart from the $100 million that YouTube will distribute as Short rewards, it will pay roughly $15 billion to monetized content creators on its platform.

Hi There! I am Elisa Wilson, and professionally, I work as a technical writer at a digital marketing company based in Ohio, and I have twelve years of experience in writing about OTT platforms. While writing an article or a blog, I try to embed knowledge and engagement, and I try to make people learn in a short, concise, and fun way. You can refer to this link: Roku.com/link.