YouTube rolled out its TikTok-clone in the form of YouTube Shorts in the US back in March. The feature goes up against the likes of TikTok and its clones including Instagram Reels. Now, the company has announced that it will pay you to use its TikTok competitor. YouTube has launched a YouTube Shorts Fund in the form of a $100M fund, which will be distributed over the course of 2021-2022. Anyone is eligible to participate in the fund simply by creating unique Shorts.

YouTube Shorts offers users tools to make a clip of 15 seconds or less. You just need to tap the “Create” icon at the bottom of the YouTube homepage and select the “create a short” option to instantly record a short video in the mobile app. Users can use tools that allow them to merge multiple clips together, add a song to the background by picking up music from YouTube’s vast library of content and more.

Each month, YouTube will reach out to thousands of creators whose Shorts would have received the most engagement and views. It will reward these creators and ask them to share their feedback to improve the product experience. Moreover, the YouTube Shorts Fund is not limited to just creators in the YouTube Partner Program. Creators will be eligible to participate if they create original content for Shorts and adhere to our Community Guidelines.

YouTube says that its priority is to build a monetization model for Shorts. The company is 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. It will also expand the Shorts player across more surfaces on YouTube to help people find new creators, artists and Shorts to enjoy.