Video platform YouTube on Tuesday, September 20, introduced new monetization tools for Shorts creators in an attempt to counter TikTok – now short video creators will be able to receive a hefty percentage of the income for selling ads.
Before the popularity of TikTok (over 100 million downloads this year in the US alone), YouTube was considered the most stable source of income for video content creators. Creators filmed and uploaded videos, earning their share of the revenue from the ads embedded in their videos, and with the advent of the YouTube Partner Program, vlogging has become a full-time job.
Now video hosting has to constantly compete with TikTok. At the end of 2020, YouTube, in an attempt to take the lead, launched Shorts, a short video tool that now attracts more than 1.5 billion monthly viewers. The new revenue-sharing system is the platform’s determined attempt to finally take the lead among video creators.
According to a SignalFire report, over 50 million people worldwide worked as online creators in 2020, monetizing their audience across platforms including TikTok, YouTube, and Twitch for a living.
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According to Linktree , a tool that allows digital content creators to share multiple links on their social networks, that number has increased to 200 million in 2022.
Under the new monetization plan for the short video service, YouTube creators will be able to receive a share of the revenue generated from ads that appear in Shorts. The video service will distribute 45% of this income among all creators, depending on their share in the total number of views of short films.
Requirements for authors
To participate in the program, users must have at least 1000 subscribers and get less than 10 million views in 3 months. The implementation of the program is scheduled for early 2023.
Contributors who do not qualify will still be able to earn audience payments and use Super Thank, Super Chat, Super Stickers, and more.
The revenue sharing for shorts is a major change for the vlogger ecosystem. Other platforms are not yet considering such a system: TikTok, for example, pays authors from a fixed “fund for creators”.
In May 2021, YouTube also introduced its own $100 million short video creator fund. However, the company is confident that in order to attract more “influential” authors, it is necessary to provide even better earning options.
“The benefit of the revenue-sharing system is that as we improve our platform, creators will also be able to earn more,” said Amjad Hanif, YouTube’s vice president of product management.
More music and copyright fees
Another reason for the popularity of TikTok is the music. The application allowed the authors to create content using the most popular songs. With YouTube Shorts, the choice of music was more limited due to copyright – creators of long videos could not use many popular songs to create their content.
However, the company found a way out here too, creating the Creator Music tool, which will provide an ever-growing catalog of music, for which artists and copyright holders will be able to receive their share of the proceeds. Video creators will be able to buy licenses and use high-quality audio as early as 2023.
Hank Green, a longtime YouTube writer and co-founder of VidCon, an annual gathering for online video artists, said on Twitter that YouTube’s new income-generating options pose a “serious threat to TikTok.” He also added that many creators view TikTok simply as a stepping stone to building an audience on “a platform where they have more control and power (like podcasts or YouTube).”
It’s a serious threat to TikTok, which is already earning a clear, definitive reputation for being antagonistic to creators, and many creators see it increasingly as a path to success on a platform where they have more control and opportunity (like podcasts or YouTube.)
— Hank Green (@hankgreen) September 20, 2022
Greene also noted that while the announcement marked “a great day for creators,” the change in music usage was an even bigger win for the music industry, which is likely to see revenue growth.
In the first half of 2022, Google earned $14.2 billion from YouTube ad sales, up 9% from the same period in 2021. However, sales in the last quarter showed slower growth than, for example, three years ago. According to financial analysts, of course, this is influenced by global economic factors, but there was also competition from TikTok here.
Source: Reuters , The Washington Post
