YouTube is fighting back against TikTok using the video giant’s key advantage, money.
On Tuesday, YouTube announced plans to share advertising sales with creators of Shorts, its bite-sized video feature.
Unlike on YouTube’s main site, the new program will compensate creators using a pool of funds that’s similar to the way that TikTok pays its popular stars.
But YouTube sees its effort as more ambitious than what TikTok has done
Neal Mohan, the company’s chief product officer, described the plan as the first to fund short-form online video “at scale.”
Creators can join “whether they want to be the next big thing or just need help paying the bills,” Mohan said at the company’s Los Angeles production space. “We want YouTube to be the place that gives them the greatest support in the digital landscape.”
YouTube, part of Alphabet Inc.’s Google, is facing competition from TikTok for both young viewers and the online stars that made the video platform a commercial success, Bloomberg reported.
Mohan said that creators can join YouTube’s partner program if they have more than 10 million views on Shorts and over 1,000 subscribers.