In order for YouTube Shorts to catch up to TikTok and Instagram Reels, Google will set up a $100 million fund and will pay creators up to $10,000 (Sh1 Million) per month for creating short videos for the platform.
YouTube figures this will encourage more people to create for the platform which has failed to gain traction after its worldwide release last month.
YouTube’s Chief Product Officer, Neal Mohan, speaking in a recent episode of The Verge’s Decoder podcast revealed that YouTube plans to start the payments this month, and creators have the opportunity to earn up to $10,000 per month for making YouTube Shorts. However, there are some things you should note.
“The popularity needed to earn money will depend on just how many people are making and watching Shorts each month, and payouts will also depend on where each creator’s audience is located.” The Verge reports.
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Creators are also required to post original videos to be eligible for a payout, and reuploads or videos tagged with watermarks from other platforms will disqualify their channel for payments. At the moment, YouTube has extended the program to 10 regions, including the US, India, and Brazil, among others, with plans to expand to other regions in the future.
YouTube will use the fund to pay creators throughout the next year and eventually replace the Shorts Fund with a “long-term, scalable monetization program.” The company doesn’t plan on running ads on YouTube Shorts, so it remains to be seen how it will generate revenue from the platform.
How to qualify for the YouTube Shorts Fund:
- Channels must meet these minimum eligibility requirements. Channels uploading non-original content, videos reuploaded from other channels, and videos with watermarks or logos from third-party social platforms will not be eligible.
- All of your Shorts videos will count towards your Shorts performance each month that they receive views — not just the month they were uploaded. Qualifying channels can earn anywhere between $100–$10,000 USD each month to start, with bonus payment amounts adjusted based on the channel’s total Shorts performance and their audience’s location.
- The level of performance needed to qualify for a bonus payment may differ between creators (based on audience location for example) and may change from month to month due to fluctuations in audience location and the number of creators making Shorts.
- Eligibility refreshes every month, so even if you don’t qualify one month, you might qualify the next month. In the meantime, keep creating new Shorts content!
Who is Eligible?
- Channels need to have uploaded at least one eligible Short in the last 180 days.
- Channels need to abide by YouTube’s Community Guidelines, copyright rules, and monetization policies.
- Creators must be in one of these countries/regions:
- Brazil
- India
- Indonesia
- Japan
- Mexico
- Nigeria
- Russia
- South Africa
- United Kingdom
- United States
Note: YouTube plans to expand eligibility to more countries/regions soon.
“The YouTube Shorts Fund is the first step in our journey to build our long-term monetization plan for Shorts and just one piece of the more than $30B we’ve paid out to creators, artists, and media companies over the last 3 years. We plan to expand the fund to even more countries in the coming months, as well as grow and evolve the fund as we continue to build more features for Shorts.” YouTube says in a blog post.
