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YouTube is updating its YouTube Shorts policy in early 2023 to provide short-form-focused content creators with expanded monetization options.
YouTube Shorts, was introduced in September 2020 as a means for creators to record short-form videos using their phones. One can speculate that this was also a response to the explosive sensation of TikTok. Regardless of the underlying reason for its This proved to be a success as now YouTube Shorts amasses about 30 billion views daily.
With the sheer number of views, you may be wondering “Are creators making money off Shorts?” See, channels that are eligible for the YouTube Partner Program are able to start making money on the platform after achieving 4,000 hours of watch time within a year and have over 1,000 subscribers. When it came to Shorts, YouTube said earlier in 2022 that while Shorts counted towards watch time, it was not eligible for monetization.
Now YouTube does have its Shorts Fund where they give bonuses to eligible creators as a reward for making outstanding content for Shorts. However, this meant that smaller creators or simply creators who weren’t selected had no way to get a steady flow of income through making Shorts alone. This makes YouTube’s recent announcement game-changing for Shorts-focused creators on their platform.
Monetizing for YouTube Shorts
So, how does it work? We’ll give you a rundown below, but we do highly recommend that you engage an experienced white label social media marketing service to help you navigate this. The area of opportunity is new and the window for maximum benefits is likely to close quickly. You will need professional help if you want to make sure that you squeeze all you can out of this.Related: What does white label mean?
First, YouTube will aggregate the revenue made by ads that show up between Shorts videos. Then, every month YouTube will distribute this money to creators in a 45/55 split. 45% goes to the creators. Note that this 45% of revenue is shared among all Shorts creators on the platform. Creators with more views get more of the distributed share.
This means that ad revenue generation becomes something of a responsibility shared by the entire YouTube community. More revenue from Shorts means everyone gets more change in their pocket at the end of the month.
This means that ad revenue generation becomes something of a responsibility shared by the entire YouTube community. More revenue from Shorts means everyone gets more change in their pocket at the end of the month.
This is a welcome change compared to the Shorts Fund. While the Fund had 100 million dollars to allocate, this was not a stable way of making money on the platform. If you weren’t eligible or selected, you couldn’t benefit. With this planned expansion of its revenue-sharing model, YouTube wants to provide all Shorts creators with a long-term sustainability option instead of a fixed fund.
Are You Now Eligible for the YouTube Partner Program?
How can creators begin taking advantage of this new expansion of monetization into Shorts? Well, similar to before. They must first meet the requirements and be accepted into the YouTube Partner Program (YPP). However, YouTube has adjusted the requirements for partnership when it comes to Shorts. The 1,000 subscriber minimum remains unchanged, however, this time YouTube has given Shorts creators the option to obtain 10 million Shorts views within a 90-day timeframe instead of attaining the 4,000 watch hours in a year. This means that Shorts creators will no longer have to pump out long-form content in order to obtain partnerships. Not only that, but creators who have already obtained 10 million views will already be considered eligible when the update rolls out in 2023,Ad revenue generation becomes something of a responsibility shared by the entire YouTube community. More revenue from Shorts means everyone gets more change in their pocket at the end of the month.
Another feature that YouTube is carrying over to Shorts is SuperThanks. This is a means for fans to show their support to content creators through donations. In exchange, they can have their message highlighted. SuperThanks is available to those who are already part of the YouTube Partnership Program and are in a supported region. This will allow viewers to donate on Shorts videos on top of the regular videos. This is just another way that Shorts-focused creators can generate revenue without relying on long-form content.
As the numbers have displayed and as the boom of TikTok and Reels has exposed, short-form content is incredibly popular and effective at bringing people in, and with them, their views. This new revenue model on shorts could have multiple effects. For one, YouTube’s revenue-sharing system might be more attractive to content creators on other platforms like TikTok, which has a fixed fund and could result in drawing them to create on YouTube. Second, this communal strategy encourages its current creators to make more short-form content to draw in the views and subsequently increase the ad revenue generated per month. When up against the short-from giant that Tiktok is, this could work out very well in YouTube’s favor whilst also catering to its short-from creators. It’s a theoretical win-win.
Why Does YouTube Want to Attract Shorts Creators?
As the numbers have displayed and as the boom of TikTok and Reels has exposed, short-form content is incredibly popular and effective at bringing people in, and with them, their views. This new revenue model on shorts could have multiple effects. For one, YouTube’s revenue-sharing system might be more attractive to content creators on other platforms like TikTok, which has a fixed fund and could result in drawing them to create on YouTube. Second, this communal strategy encourages its current creators to make more short-form content to draw in the views and subsequently increase the ad revenue generated per month. When up against the short-from giant that Tiktok is, this could work out very well in YouTube’s favor whilst also catering to its short-from creators. It’s a theoretical win-win.
YouTube generates about 1 billion watch hours or over 5 billion YouTube videos watched a day. In 2021, they made $28.8 billion in ad revenues which was almost 50% more than they made the previous year. A portion of this was paid to their long-form content creators. Now imagine how much money they could make by expanding monetization over to YouTube Shorts which generates 15 billion views a day.
The number of short form video users increases every year. India, the country that also houses the most number of YouTube subscribers, is estimated to have around 300 million users creating short-form content and is projected to grow to about double that size by 2025. Imagine all the users that are creating on other platforms. With this new model of revenue sharing, YouTube is able to attract more creators to its platform while keeping its current base happy. With over 6 billion smartphone users in the world, they are surely going to be drawing some of those views into their platform through this new Shorts update if all goes well.
Advertising Opportunity
YouTube is seeing a growth in users on its platform. Not only that but it can be expected that this new monetization model could even sprout new creators. More creators on the platform means more ad revenue growth potential. This can grow especially lucrative as digital advertising continues to rise in popularity.In the US, it’s projected that digital ad spend could reach heights of over 278 billion by 2024. In China, birthplace to TikTok or Douyin – its local name – of are digital ads make up 82% of the market. 65% of TikTok revenues came through these ads.
We foresee that digital advertising is only the beginning. More revenue options are going to open up later on. India is a different story though as the amount of time spent consuming short-form content and videos has yet to generate a proportionate amount of ad revenue.
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