- So then, YouTube Shorts, we all know it's already
a little complicated and frustrating
when it comes to monetization.
Well I'm afraid this little icon
is going to make this even worse.
(light music)
It's a very simple question.
Have you earned any money
or any hours of watch time towards money utilization
from your short videos on YouTube in the last six months?
The answer likely is yes,
but a tiny fraction of what you feel you deserve
because of the weird and wonderful
and rather terrible way YouTube Shorts
contribute towards analytics right now.
So what I'm gonna do in this video
is quickly recap where we are we've YouTube Shorts
and monetization right now,
where YouTube seems to be going in the short term
and where hopefully we may end up on YouTube Shorts
in the long-term.
Oh, what do you think?
Classic vidIQ t-shirt, do you like it?
Here is the current and confusing state of play.
If you watch a short video through the Shorts player
which looks and operates a lot differently
to the normal YouTube mobile app player.
This is considered a YouTube short view
and you do not earn any ad revenue whatsoever.
However, if you watch that same video
through a non-YouTube short location,
such as a video tab on a channel,
which plays the video through the normal YouTube player,
then as long as you've monetized the video, ads may play,
and you may earn ad revenue.
Basically, depending on how the video is viewed
on the YouTube mobile app,
determines whether or not it is monetized.
This often leads to videos with tons of views
from YouTube Shorts, none of which are monetizable,
along with a much smaller bunch of views
from a gaggle of traffic sources
that bring in a couple of dollars
even for videos with hundreds of thousands of views.
This has also led to weird monetization requirements
for shorts channels.
Take the vidIQ Shorts channel as an example.
We only make shorts on this channel.
It now has a lifetime total of nearly 900 watch time hours.
But according to YPP requirements,
we have less than half of that,
even though all of our subscribers
count towards that requirement.
I know of other channels
that have gained tens of thousands of subscribers
and millions of views,
but have less monetization attributes and watch time
than this, it's a crazy situation.
What we have here is a double edged YouTube sword.
On the one side, we have a tremendous opportunity
to grow a channel very fast through YouTube Shorts,
and then on the other much sharper side,
no means by which to make any money
out of that shorts channel,
and excuse to bring props into a video.
If creators can figure out ways
to get their viewers to watch short content
not through YouTube Shorts,
from playlists, or just really good promotion
for the Community tab, and so on,
then there is potential to earn money
from their short form content.
But YouTube might be taking all of that away from us.
All right so first things first,
I still don't have access
to any of the YouTube Shorts camera tools.
I feel like I'm behind and left out right now.
So who knows, even this information might change
in the coming weeks.
But you may have noticed this new icon
starts to appear on video thumbnails.
Instead of a timestamp,
you may simply see the Shorts icon and name.
What this means is that when you tap to view this video,
it doesn't go into the YouTube mobile player,
it goes into the YouTube Shorts player.
That of course means no adds and no revenue.
Now, previously, this only happened
when you launched a video from the shorts shelf
on the browser page or a channel page.
And for the time being, at least,
if you go to the Video tab and Playlist
these short videos will still go through the regular player.
But while this feels like to me
is one of the first and very deliberate steps by YouTube
to properly segregate YouTube Shorts
from regular long form YouTube content.
What I say next is purely conjecture,
a YouTube prediction, if you will.
What I believe YouTube wants at least on mobile
is to automatically detect any video
that is less than 60 seconds long
in a vertical video format, and slap this logo on it
no matter where a viewer encounters it
on a YouTube mobile app and play in the Shorts player
so that there are no adverts on it
and you don't earn any revenue, at least in the short term.
This halfway house of a video being either a YouTube Shorts
or simply a short video on YouTube
is very confusing to both me as a viewer and a creator.
And I think YouTube ultimately wants to unify this
so there are, strictly speaking,
YouTube Shorts and then YouTube long form content.
And there is no gray area.
YouTube Shorts now have their own shelf,
they appear as Shorts in the Subscription feed
and shorts are being tested out in the Explore tab.
As we've already said, shorts are no longer a secret.
YouTube are actively trying to put these
in front of every viewer, and every creator.
The problem with all of this
is that everyone financially right now is losing.
And I'm not just talking about creators.
For YouTube to effectively clone TikTok in 12 months
must have cost an absolute fortune.
And if ads aren't running on people's videos,
YouTube doesn't earn any of that income either.
Now, of course, YouTube must also have been
under phenomenal pressure
to get this short form video environment
out onto their existing platform
in such a short space of time.
And this still currently feels
like the biggest beta test ever to be imagined
on the face of a planet.
Throwing it in front of two billion users,
and now pretty much every single creator,
that being tens of millions, having access to YouTube Shorts
before really its official release.
YouTube have already stated
that there are now at least 3 1/2 billion
daily YouTube Shorts views.
So they have a phenomenal amount of data
they just need to figure out how to monetize all of this.
And they likely already have, at least behind the scenes.
But of course, rolling out monetization
on such a massive scale
on a new video platform is going to take time.
So once again, here's my YouTube prediction.
I reckon by the end of 2021,
YouTube will have fully rolled out
a monetization mechanism for YouTube Shorts.
I think they have to
because creators are not going to continue
to make content for free.
The YouTube partner program, as amazing as it is,
has set expectations for creators
to be paid for what they do.
Right now the ultimate benefit of YouTube Shorts
is reaching a huge audience
while there isn't as much competition
as there will be in 12 months,
especially when it's monetizationable, if that's a word.
Let me give you this example.
Jake Fellman, who we've talked about on this channel before
now gets more views per week from his YouTube Shorts
than Ryan's World.
Yes, Ryan's World.
However, when it comes to ad revenue,
I wouldn't be surprised if Jake Fellman
is earning 1% of what Ryan's World earns
from ad revenue on YouTube.
And that's what YouTube needs to figure out
for its creators.
Now, if you don't mind me,
I'm gonna try and earn this video a copyright claim
through a YouTube Shorts worth of a music cover.
(singing)
"Zelda: A Link to the Past" was the best version by far,
don't argue with me.