Shorts, YouTube’s rival to TikTok, is playing a bigger role in the company’s revenue strategy. The corporation declared that the short-form videos are currently generating revenue for more than 25% of the channels in its Partner Program.
The accomplishment was made just over a year after YouTube started paying producers who make short films a portion of the money from ads. According to YouTube, the Partner Program presently counts over 3 million producers worldwide. This suggests that there are hundreds of thousands of Shorts artists that are profiting from the site.
Because ads on Shorts appear between clips in a feed, revenue sharing for Shorts is structured differently than for longer-form content on YouTube. Ad revenue is pooled and divided among eligible creators based on factors like views and music licensing. The company has said this arrangement is far more lucrative for individuals than traditional creator funds.
So far though, it’s unclear just how much creators are making from Shorts compared with the platform’s other monetization programs. YouTube declined to share details but said the company has paid out $70 billion to creators over the last three years.
Shorts’ momentum could grow even more in the coming months. TikTok, which itself has been trying to compete more directly with YouTube by encouraging longer videos, is facing a nonzero chance that its app could be banned in the United States. Though that outcome is far from certain, YouTube would almost certainly attract former TikTok users and creators.
