YouTube Launches New $100 Million Fund for Shorts Creators

After announcing the expansion of its 'Shorts' option to all US users last week, YouTube announced the new Shorts Fund Feature on their Shorts option that will see YouTube pay out $100 million to top Shorts creators to provide additional support, and motivation, for their efforts.

"Since Shorts is a new way to watch and create on YouTube, we’ve been taking a fresh look at what it means to monetize and reward creators for their content. We’re introducing the YouTube Shorts Fund, a $100M fund distributed over the course of 2021-2022. Anyone is eligible to participate in the fund simply by creating unique Shorts that delight the YouTube community", explained by YouTube in their blogpost.

With the latest download charts showing that TikTok is still the most popular app at present, and is well on track to reach a billion users this year, it is a major concern for YouTube regarding their shorts feature but considering the shorts funds addition on the app, this can help to boost the users for Shorts content, while also providing additional motivation for YouTube stars to post to Shorts, instead of TikTok.

As explained by YouTube,

"The Shorts Fund is the first step in our journey to build a monetization model for Shorts on YouTube. This is a top priority for us, and will take us some time to get it right. [...] We’ll expand our Shorts player across more surfaces on YouTube to help people find new creators, artists and Shorts to enjoy. We will also begin to test and iterate on ads to better understand their performance."

YouTube will look to build an ads infrastructure in order to feed into that monetization stream for this addition.