YouTube has announced that they will officially begin it’s ad-money sharing with YouTube Shorts creators on February 1st following up on their promise back in September that monetization was on the horizon.
The ad-money share change will be a part of a broader update to the YouTube Partner Program, which will require everyone who is current a part of the YouTube Partner Program to sign new agreement terms regardless if they are looking to monetize YouTube Shorts or not.
Until now, YouTube creators have only been able to monetize via the format that was rolled out back in 2021 via elements such as Super Chats, shopping integrations, and a creator fund that YouTube setup.
While it was similar to what TikTok has in place, YouTube Shorts is now differentiating itself from that structure by sharing ad revenue with their creators, something that TikTok does not currently do and the announcement comes as YouTube is revising the requirements to join the YouTube Partner Program.
Then there are additional agreements for “Watch Page” and Shorts monetization, which you can agree to separately, and the Shorts agreement will be available on February 1st. The deal will give creators a cut from the “ads viewed between videos in the Shorts Feed.”
While there is also an addendum for “commerce products” like memberships, Super Chats, Super Stickers, and Super Thanks, YouTube says that you won’t have to re-agree to those terms if you’ve already turned the features on for your channel.
