The battle of online video platforms escalated when YouTube announced that it would start paying creators for short films.
Shorts, in case you’re not in the know, is YouTube’s answer to TikTok. These short vertical videos appear at the top of your YouTube feed and are designed to be viewed in quick bursts on mobile.
It’s a departure from the traditional search-driven YouTube landscape that many viewers may visit to find specific content.
YouTube is understandably concerned about TikTok’s rise in popularity. In recent years, the Chinese social media app has soared to the top of the zeitgeist.
It was the most downloaded app of 2021 and grew by 180% among users aged 15 to 25 during the pandemic, according to Statista. Since its launch in 2017, it has been downloaded over 3.5 billion times worldwide.
To increase the amount of original content (and compete with YouTube), TikTok launched the Creator Fund to pay users with significant reach. This means that, in addition to receiving money for promoted content from brands, some TikTokers may receive money from the platform.
But there are some conditions: you must have over 10,000 followers and over 10,000 genuine views in the last 30 days. And according to reports, TikTok will pay out between $20 and $40 for every million views a creator gets.
TikTokers can withdraw your earnings once they earn at least $10 through the Creator Fund, so they need half a million views before they can make a withdrawal.
YouTube Shorts, on the other hand, will pay creators if they have 4,000 hours of non-short content watched, or 10 million views of public shorts in the last 90 days. This makes them eligible for the YouTube Partner Program, which will pay them based on ads added to their videos.
With all this in mind, where is the best place for an aspiring author to post their content?
“YouTube has certainly been setting the industry standard for monetization for years now and it’s great to see them following suit with short content,” explained Victor Potrel, VP of Content Distribution at TheSoul Publishing.
“However, each platform is unique and provides some value to its viewers, creators and advertisers. We expect major players to focus more on ways to support the creator economy, which is good for the industry,” he told Metro.co.uk.
Victor’s digital studio, TheSoul Publishing, has over 1.5 billion followers on social media such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest and Snap combined.
And he says YouTube’s decision to monetize shorts will be a boon for creators.
“Together with the YouTube Shorts revenue sharing announcement, the platform has adapted its monetization criteria for Shorts creators with a new viewing threshold of 10 million Shorts views. This is good news for new creators who will be able to capitalize on their success in the field of short content,” he said.
“For more established creators, this will be an easy process, although capitalizing on the popularity of short content will require flexibility and the ability to work with multiple content formats to stay on top of viewer trends.
“From the perspective of TheSoul Publishing, as one of the largest digital creators in the world, we feel it is incredibly important – and necessary – to take advantage of the new offerings that each platform presents.
“Above all, creators should focus on creating compelling content while leveraging new platform tools, whether they help increase reach, engagement, or monetization.”
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