KOLKATA: The competition in the short video ecosystem has been heating up for some time now, and YouTube has just upped the stakes with the announcement of a creators fund. Dedicated exclusively for those who create short form video content, the YouTube Shorts Fund is a $100 million pot that will be distributed over the course of 2021-2022.

The cash injection aims to reward the thousands of creators whose Shorts received the most engagement and views, YouTube said in a blogpost. The video viewing platform will also seek feedback from these creators to improve the product experience.

The Shorts Fund is not limited to just creators in the YouTube Partner Program. Any creator will be eligible to participate if they create original content for Shorts. Its biggest rival, TikTok, also rolled out a creator fund last year, followed by Snap a little later.

“The Shorts Fund is the first step in our journey to build a monetisation model for Shorts on YouTube. 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 program specifically designed for YouTube Shorts,” read the blogpost.

The company has qualified the grant of the fund on the grounds that only “original” content would gain rewards. However, it didn’t clarify how it will go about checking to ensure the content isn’t already uploaded on another platform, like Reels, Snapchat or TikTok.

Further details about the payments and eligibility would be available closer to the fund’s launch, which is expected sometime in the next few months.

YouTube also plans to expand Shorts player across more surfaces on YouTube to help people find new creators, artists and Shorts to enjoy. It will also begin to test and iterate on ads to better understand creators’ performance.