YouTube’s short video views reached 30 billion per day in the first quarter of 2022, a four-fold increase from the first quarter of 2021.
Additionally, YouTube confirms that it is now testing ads in short films, which will finally allow creators to monetize their short videos.
This was revealed in parent company Alphabet’s quarterly earnings call for the first quarter of 2022.
The decision to place ads in short films is not motivated by a 4x increase in views. Instead, it is being urged by YouTube to miss its earnings target.
YouTube certainly generated a lot of revenue in the last quarter and even exceeded the amount that was made in the first quarter of 2021.
Since YouTube fell short of its target, earning $6.87 billion from $7.51 billion, the company has to make up for it to satisfy shareholders.
Ads in short films are YouTube’s answer to taking revenue growth to new heights. In turn, content creators’ earnings may reach new highs as well.
Here are the highlights related to the YouTube short from Alphabet’s first-quarter 2022 earnings call.
YouTube confirms that ads are coming to the short films
Ruth Porat, Chief Financial Officer of Alphabet and Google, confirmed testing ads in YouTube Shorts:
“We are experiencing a slight headwind to revenue growth as viewership of short films grows as a percentage of total YouTube time. We are testing monetization on short films, and early feedback and results for advertisers are encouraging.”
Ads in short films give creators in the YouTube Partner Program the ability to earn more on the platform.
Currently, the only way to make money by creating short films is through the YouTube Short Fund. The Shorts Fund is allocating $100 million to creators for content that goes viral.
All creators, even if they are not in the YouTube Partner Program, can get paid from the shorts box.
In fact, 40% of the creators who received revenue from the Shorts box in 2021 were not in the YouTube Partner Program.
Whether the box shorts will remain in place once ads are launched more widely is not known at this time.
Potential Earnings – Short YouTube Videos Vs. Tik Tok
Advertisements can significantly increase the view value of a YouTube short for content creators.
With the exception of sponsorships and merchandise sales, there are limited options on the web when it comes to making money with short video.
Like YouTube, TikTok has a fund from which creators are paid for popular content.
TikTok is less transparent about how much you pay, though creators report they are not happy with the revenue split.
This is a tweet from @SuperSaf, who has 400,000 followers on TikTok, sharing his feelings about revenue sharing:
This is how much I’ve made from TikTok Creator Fund since April 2021 with over 25 million views in that time
TikTok as a platform for creators has a lot of potential but I agree with it @employee They really need a profit sharing rating ►https://t.co/cg8FNVqumn pic.twitter.com/hhOz9vjhiZ
– Safwan Ahmed Mia (SuperSaf) January 21, 2022
he is Refers to a video From YouTuber Hank Green, a video article explaining how TikTok pays its creators.
Green argues that YouTube is better at paying creators for content, suggesting that a TikTok creator’s fund isn’t the best way to pay people for their work.
It will be interesting to see if any of the popular TikTokers make their way to YouTube once the ads appear in everyone’s shorts.
Source: Youtube
Featured image: Alessandro Biascioli / Shutterstock
