YouTube is making it harder for new creators to start earning money on the platform by raising the requirements for ad and subscription revenue. The changes will require creators to build much larger audiences before they can qualify for monetization.
Starting February 1, new creators will need at least 8,000 qualified watch hours in the past year or 20 million qualified Shorts views in the past 90 days to begin earning money from ads and subscriptions.
The current requirements are significantly lower. Creators currently need 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours over the past year, or 1,000 subscribers and 10 million Shorts views over the past 90 days.
YouTube said the changes will not affect creators who are already part of the YouTube Partner Program.
YouTube is also introducing a separate requirement for creators earning money through the Shorts Creators Pool.
Creators will need to maintain 10 million Shorts views within a 90-day period to continue earning through the program. Channels that fall below the threshold will remain in the YouTube Partner Program and can continue earning from long-form content.
Shorts revenue will resume when those channels reach 10 million views again.
The higher thresholds could make it more difficult for new creators to enter YouTube’s monetization system and for Shorts creators to maintain their earnings. Creators will need to consistently attract large audiences before they can earn money through the platform.
YouTube said the changes are intended to “keep pace with the growth of YouTube,” which now sees more than 200 billion daily Shorts views and more than one billion hours of watch time on TVs every day.
YouTube also announced that it is expanding its more affordable Premium Lite subscription to all countries where YouTube Premium is available.
Creators receive a share of subscription revenue based on member watch time and views. YouTube said 55% goes to long-form video creators and 45% goes to Shorts creators.
The company said creators can expect higher earnings as more users subscribe to Premium because partners, on average, earn more when users watch through a Premium subscription than when they watch advertisements.
Premium Lite provides an ad-free experience on most videos. It also allows users to download videos for offline viewing and play videos in the background.
YouTube is not the only major social media platform changing how creators earn money.
Over the weekend, Elon Musk’s X revamped its creator payout system by changing its guidelines to reward only original content.
Earlier this spring, Facebook also launched a new monetization program designed to attract creators from TikTok and YouTube.
Get the latest tech news, telecom insights, and product launches wherever you prefer.
Add ProPakistani to Preferred Sources and see more of our stories in Google Search and Top Stories.
Shares
