YouTube Shorts creators can look forward to sharing in ad revenue from Feb

If you film Shorts on YouTube, this news is tailored to you. The social media platform has a brand-new monetization process in the works for its Shorts short video space. The company has confirmed that, from the 1st of February 2023, revenue from ads that are displayed between the Shorts will be shared amongst eligible creators within the app. 

In YouTube’s words: 

‘Starting February 1st, 2023, monetizing partners will be able to earn money from ads that are viewed between videos in the Shorts Feed. This new revenue-sharing model will replace the YouTube Shorts Fund.’ 

The feature was first announced in September 2022, and given how pivotal such a feature is to the way creators make money on YouTube, it’s rather exciting that it’s taking effect soon. This decision doesn’t just affect YouTube content creators, though. With the way that trends are birthed, followed, and spread, it’s likely that more platforms offering short video content will hop on the ad monetization bandwagon. 

There’s an inherent issue with short-form videos like those hosted on YouTube Shorts. It’s incredibly difficult to monetize such brief content in any meaningful way. Unlike larger videos, where you can intersperse adverts at regular intervals throughout the video, Shorts are simply too short. Each clip is shorter than the standard YouTube advert. 

Elsewhere, social media giants are putting other methods of monetization into use, such as China’s local version of TikTok, where the majority of income earned is generated from in-stream commerce. Unfortunately, this specific mechanic has not taken off with quite as much success in the Western market. Therefore, companies need to think of other ways to monetize content. 

The thing about content creation is that although an individual may have a passion for a certain subject, the primary draw of digital content creation is the financial incentive involved. Should that incentive disappear and the enterprise becomes unsustainable in generating an income, creators will lose interest and move to platforms that offer better incentives. 

Many social media apps use a type of creator fund to help keep creators on board, but this method is unsustainable as more creators drawing money from the pool shrinks the availability of funds considerably. 

YouTube’s plan seems a lot more viable. The way this will work is that creators will post Shorts and between Shorts there will be adverts. These adverts generate revenue for YouTube. This revenue will go into one cumulative fund, and 45% of this revenue will be shared with eligible creators. Your number of views will determine how much ad revenue you are entitled to. Should Shorts experience a massive windfall, so will the creators. 

YouTube has stated that it expects the payouts from the new system to be even greater than those that creators are already experiencing. Whether or not this will be the case will only be clear when February rolls around. 

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