- Kyle Chua
YouTube Introducing New Revenue-Sharing Plan to Shorts in Bid To Compete With TikTok
More and more social media platforms appear to be feeling threatened by TikTok, with YouTube said to be planning to implement some changes to lure creators back onto its platform.
The Google-owned video sharing site announced on Tuesday, 20 September, that it would be introducing ads on its Shorts video feature, as Reuters reports. It would then give video creators 45% of the ad revenue, which is only 10% shy of the standard 55% that the platform gives to traditional videos.
For those unfamiliar, Shorts is essentially YouTube's answer to TikTok and Instagram Reels. The feature was launched in 2020 to accommodate short-form videos in a vertical format that are a minute long or less. Videos on Shorts reportedly attract over 1.5 billion monthly viewers.
YouTube previously created a US$100 million fund to entice creators on producing more content for Shorts and reduce the chances of them jumping ship to TikTok. This revenue-sharing effort, however, is meant to be bigger and a more sustainable plan to support creators moving forward. It's also something that TikTok has not yet done, so YouTube likely hopes to take advantage of this new opportunity.
Part of YouTube's plan is to make it easier for creators to make money off of their content. YouTube explains that starting in 2023, creators can become a partner and join the new revenue-sharing plan if they’ve got 10 million Shorts views within a 90-day period. Before, only creators with more than 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 total watch hours over the last year could join YouTube’s Partner Program, which allows the monetisation of videos.
YouTube also wants to share a portion of sales with Shorts creators to offset its investments in the development of the feature.
Reuters adds that Google recorded US$14.2 billion in YouTube ad sales in the first half of this year, a 9% improvement over last year. However, the most recent quarterly ad sales aren't as favourable, with many financial analysts pointing to TikTok as one of the factors for the slowdown.
YouTube announced it would be introducing ads on its Shorts video feature and sharing 45% of the ad revenue to creators in a bid to compete with TikTok.
Part of the plan is to make it easier for creators to make money off of their content.
The video-sharing site explained that creators can join the new revenue-sharing plan if they’ve gotten 10 million Shorts views within a 90-day period.