YouTube to allow monetization of YouTube Shorts videos from 1 February

Putting pressure on rival TikTok, Google is including the YouTube Shorts platform in its YouTube Partner program, allowing celebrities with enough followers and viewing hours to round out their revenue by monetizing YouTube Shorts videos.

Taking a swipe at rival platform TikTok, which still doesn’t directly share revenue with content creators, Google is modifying the YouTube Partner program to allow creators to also earn revenue from views generated with YouTube Shorts videos. So, while previously any YouTuber with more than 1000 followers and at least 4000 hours of cumulative views in the last year qualified for the YouTube Partner programme, now there is another hurdle to pass, as YouTube stars with at least 10 million views generated on the platform in the last 90 days are also eligible to monetise YouTube Shorts videos.

Once accessed, the Shorts video monetization option shares 45% of ad revenue with content creators.

At the moment, TikTok is only experimenting with ad revenue sharing , with a focus on rewarding advertising partners rather than the creators who actually produce the platform’s content. Currently only 4% of all videos shared on TikTok are eligible for monetization through the equivalent TikTok Pulse program.

With the new monetization option, the YouTube Shorts platform becomes TikTok’s biggest competitor, with eligible creators motivated to participate with more original content on the Google-run platform.