YouTube to share short-form video ad revenue with creators

YouTube announced on Tuesday it will soon provide creators with a portion of advertising revenues earned from the company’s short-form video platform.

YouTube runs advertisements between the short videos posted to the platform, which is similar to TikTok and dubbed “YouTube Shorts.” 

The company said beginning in early 2023, it will expand its existing YouTube Partner Program (YPP) — which allows eligible content creators who make longer-form videos to receive ad revenue from their content — to Shorts by pooling together the ad revenue and awarding some of it to creators based on view counts.

YouTube will allow creators to keep 45 percent of the ad revenue, the company wrote in a blog post. The amount given to each creator will be based on their share of total views on the platform and will not differ if they use music in their videos, which often comes with licensing fees for the platform.

“This brand new approach allows us to reward all YPP creators who make up the Shorts experience, not just to those with videos running next to ads,” the post states. “In addition, since Music fuels some of our most vibrant and memorable Shorts, it simplifies the complexities of music licensing, so that creators don’t have to worry about whether or not they use music in their Short.”

Previously, the company created a $100 million fund distributed to thousands of Shorts creators each month.

Neal Mohan, YouTube’s chief product officer, announced the expansion during a company event on Tuesday, saying he expects the majority who have received money from the fund to now earn more under the new setup.

“We want to make good on our promise to help a whole new generation of creators turn their dream into a reality, all made on YouTube,” he said.

The company said the Shorts platform’s popularity has “exploded,” now reaching 30 billion daily views and 1.5 billion monthly users.

Its expansion comes as YouTube faces stiff competition from TikTok, a video sharing platform that has soared in popularity in recent years.

The Shorts platform provides a similar service, allowing creators to post short videos that often use music and go viral.