The Medium
Friday Mailing: A Short Take on YouTube Shorts
[Author's note: this week's Friday mailing is late because I am traveling.]
Yesterday The New York Times broke the news that YouTube plans to put its collective foot on the gas pedal for YouTube Shorts, its TikTok competitor, and will announce "more opportunities for content creators to earn money on its video service" in a new YouTube Shorts Partner Program.
There were two aspects to the program that stuck out to me based on past PARQOR essays:
- YouTube "plans to let more video creators earn money from the platform, lowering the barriers to entry for its partner program",
- YouTube will bring ads to Shorts but will only pay 45% of the money to Creators, which is less than the 55% they pay to creators in their Partner Program.
Even if for short format content, it seems like YouTube is doubling down on its advantages over legacy media streaming services.
Lowered Barriers to Entry
A point I frequently make is that Jimmy Donaldson aka MrBeast and 2MM other content creators in YouTube's Partner Program worldwide (and growing) are competing for the same audiences as legacy media companies across Connected TVs and smartphone screens worldwide. And, ...