YouTube Shorts, Google's TikTok competitor, will pay $100 million to creators over the course of 2021 and 2022 to boost content production and better compete with its rivals.

Introducing the YouTube Shorts Fund

The YouTube Shorts Fund is now a reality, according to a post on the Official YouTube Blog.

YouTube creators with original videos on Shorts will receive monetary rewards for their most engaging content. Google says the fund will be distributed from 2021 through some point in 2022. The new initiative will help build a longer-term monetization model for Shorts.

YouTube Shorts launched in the US in March 2021.

Currently available to everyone in the US And India, the YouTube Shorts Fund is scheduled to launch globally in the next few months, Google says.

YouTube Shorts: The Devil Is in the Detail

YouTube will reward thousands of creators every month based on certain milestones.

That being said, however, Google's yet to detail specific thresholds for receiving payments and other important details, such as whether creators could receive multiple payments in the same pay period. It's also unclear how the fund might treat creators who post original content on rival platforms like Instagram Reels or TikTok, in addition to YouTube Shorts.

Related: How to Get Started With YouTube Shorts

What we do know, however, is that any creators posting original videos to YouTube Shorts are eligible to receive rewards, not just those in the YouTube Partner Program. At any rate, the YouTube shorts Fund will be rolling out globally in the coming months and Google has promised to share further information closer to the fund’s launch.

New Features Coming to YouTube Shorts

YouTube will be expanding a new remix audio feature to all Shorts creators. This lets you use sounds from other YouTube videos in your own Shorts provided creators have enabled the option in their YouTube settings that lets their content be used on YouTube Shorts.

Creators can caption their Shorts as well as record up to 60 seconds with the Shorts camera (and optionally add clips from their phone to those recordings).

Related: The Best Android Video Editors With No Watermarks

YouTube Shorts supports basic filters to color correct short-form videos, with more effects promised to come in the future. And last but not least, YouTube will begin testing ads for Shorts as another way to monetize the service.

Short-Form Video Is a Lucrative Business

YouTube has paid out more than $30 billion to creators, artists, and media companies over the last three years. With the new YouTube Shorts Fund, Google has made a step in the right direction---more so considering the booming popularity of short-form video that gave rise to competitors such as Instagram Reels and TikTok.

Those services are also doling out money to creators to help fund their work.

Snapchat, for instance, pays $1 million/day for the most viewed videos from its creators. Instagram Reels is offering lucrative deals to the biggest TikTok stars and TikTok's own $200 million Creator Fund will balloon in the next three years to $1 billion in the US alone.