YouTube has decided to launch a reward program to promote creators to use YouTube Shorts and consciously post content on the platform. YouTube said that it has plans to reward top creators of the YouTube Shorts platform over the next year. For this, it has earmarked a USD 100 million fund. The fund will be used as a reward to creators for their most engaging and most view content during the period of 2021 and 2022. However, creators of the platform won’t be able to apply for the fund and use it for the production of the content. YouTube said that it will reach out to creators every month whose content would cross a certain milestone. Those creators will be rewarded for their contribution.
The company said that it is planning to rewards thousand of creators every month. However, the company has refused to share more specific details about the fund’s operation at the moment. So there is no clarity about what will be the threshold and who creators will be vetted. The company also wouldn’t offer details about how much creators will be rewarded and will they be able to receive multiple payments in a particular month if they have several contents that would qualify. But the company has clarified that anyone would be eligible for the reward and the creators need to be in the YouTube Partner Program to qualify for this.
The company has stressed that creators would be rewarded only for sharing original content on the platform. However, it did not talk about how it will make sure that the content is not available on its competitor TikTok or any other such platforms. YouTube launched its Shorts platform in the United States in March. The short video appears on the YouTube platform and can be swiped up for more content, just like TikTok or Instagram Reels. The competition in the short video domain has increased immensely with several players joining the league. Other creators too have launched similar programs to encourage creators to stick to their platform. While TikTok has launched a USD 200 million fund for this purpose, Snapchat paid USD 1 million per day for a period of time after launching Spotlight in 2020
