YouTube launches $100m fund to reward YouTube Shorts creators

In a bid to compete with TikTok, YouTube has launched a $100 million fund to reward YouTube Shorts creators for their most viewed and most engaging content over the course of 2021 and 2022.

YouTube started the rollout of YouTube Shorts in September 2020 and according to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai in a recent company earnings call, Shorts is getting about 6.5 billion daily views globally.

Shorts is a new short-form video experience for creators and artists who want to shoot short, catchy videos using nothing but their mobile phones.

The company in a recent blog post said, “Each month, we’ll reach out to thousands of creators whose Shorts received the most engagement and views to reward them for their contributions.”

Anyone is eligible to participate in the fund simply by creating unique Shorts that delight the YouTube community and adhere to our Community Guidelines. YouTube says that eligible creators don’t have to be a part of its Partner Program.

The company also said that “the Shorts Fund is the first step in our journey to build a monetization model for Shorts on YouTube.”

Apart from commencing the reward of creators for their contributions through the Shorts Fund, YouTube is expanding its Shorts player across more surfaces on YouTube to help people find new creators, artists and Shorts to enjoy. It will also begin to test and iterate on ads to better understand their performance.

YouTube has now joined the TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram’s Reels in the creation of a designated fund to try and lure influencers on its mobile platform. TikTok launched a $200 million creator fund in 2020 while Snap Inc. launched a new fund late last year for top performers of its video product.

In its first-quarter earnings report, Alphabet said YouTube was responsible for $6.01 billion in advertising revenue during the quarter which is nearly 50% on a year-over-year basis from $4 billion.