YouTube will soon pay creators behind viral Shorts as part of $100 million fund

Abner Li | May 11 2021 - 9:27 am PT

YouTube Shorts are aggressively being pushed to compete with TikTok. To drive content creation, Google is setting up a YouTube Shorts Fund to pay those that create the best short-form videos every month.

The YouTube Shorts Fund will pay out $100 million over the course of 2021-2022. Anyone that creates a Short and adheres to the community guidelines is eligible. You do not have to be part of the YouTube Partner Program.

Each month, we’ll reach out to thousands of creators whose Shorts received the most engagement and views to reward them for their contributions. We’ll also ask these creators to share their feedback with us so we can continue to improve the product experience.

The exact amount is unclear and more details will come when the fund launches in the “coming months.” It will presumably be targeted more at individuals rather than brands. YouTube Shorts are available in the US and India today, with Google calling the upcoming effort a ” first step in our journey to build a monetization model.” YouTube will soon start testing ads for this format.

This is a top priority for us, and will take us some time to get it right. We are actively working on this, and will take the feedback gathered from our community to help develop a long-term program specifically designed for YouTube Shorts.

On the product front, YouTube Shorts now supports automatic captions, 60-second captures, adding pre-recorded clips from your gallery, and color-correcting filters.