YouTube Shorts: creators in Mena region now eligible for $100 million global fund

The YouTube Shorts feature was rolled out in July 2020. Unsplash

Short-form video creators in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Egypt, Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Morocco can now get rewarded for their work thanks to a global fund.

In response to Shorts, a popular feature on YouTube, a global $100 million fund, initially announced in May and available to a number of countries, has now come to the Mena region. Channels can earn anywhere between $100 to $10,000 each month with bonus amounts adjusted based on the channel’s Shorts total performance and audience location.

"The Shorts Fund is the first step in our journey to build a monetisation model. This is a top priority for us, and will take us some time to get it right. We are actively working on this, and will take the feedback gathered from our community to help develop a long-term programme specifically designed for YouTube Shorts," said YouTube in a blog post in May.

"YouTube has helped an entire generation of creators and artists turn their creativity into businesses. We’ve paid more than $30 billion to creators, artists, and media companies over the past three years, and we remain deeply committed to supporting the next generation of mobile creators with Shorts."

Shorts rolled out in July 2020 and allows people to create 60-second clips on their mobile phones. As of this July, YouTube says the feature receives more than 15 billion daily views.

“Since rolling out Shorts in the Middle East and North Africa earlier this year, we’ve seen great growth in viewership and creation. The Shorts Fund was the logical next step as we build our long-term monetisation plan for Shorts,” said Tarek Amin, director of YouTube in the Middle East and North Africa.

“YouTube has helped an entire generation of creators and artists turn their creativity into businesses, and in Mena, the number of creators earning five and six figures from YouTube continues to grow year on year. The fund is yet another tool in YouTube’s storytelling toolbox,” he said.

In order to be eligible for the fund, creators need to meet the following criteria:

• Channels need to have uploaded at least one eligible Short in the past 180 days.
• Channels need to abide by YouTube’s Community Guidelines, copyright rules and monetisation policies.
• Channels uploading videos with watermarks or logos from third-party social media platforms, non-original videos (for example, unedited clips from movies or TV shows), or videos reuploaded from other creator’s channels will not be eligible.
• Channels do not need to be currently monetising on YouTube to be eligible.
• Creators must be above the age of majority in their country/region.

In the Mena region, the creator community has continued to grow, with YouTube stating that the number of channels in the UAE making six figures or more is up more than 40 per cent over the past year.