YouTube is, without a doubt, one of the largest content monetization platforms. Owned by Google, YouTube approximately has about two billion content creators, who are a part of this profitable partner programme. The platform has paid over $30 billion to various creators, artists and media businesses within the past three years.

This profit-making programme is known as the YouTube Partner Programme (YPP), which is the first of its kind. In this open monetization initiative, anyone who is eligible can join the programme to start making money.

Neal Mohan, the Chief Product Officer of YouTube, has stated that more than 2 million creators participate in YPP across the globe, ranging from tech reviewers to entertainers, which helps them generate jobs and well as contribute to the local and global economy. In 2019, YouTube has supported the equivalent of roughly 345,000 full-time jobs, and this is just in the US.

According to Neal Mohan, YPP is one of the largest driver of the content creation economy across the globe. He has also stated that creators who are a part of YPP can earn a living with their content with about ten different monetization features, starting from selling merchandise to advertiser revenue. In order to be eligible for YPP, content creators need to have at least 1,000 subscribers and an overall watch time of 4,000 hours on their YouTube channels, in the past one year.

Mohan has also said that in the 4th quarter of 2020, YouTube’s violative view rate was about 0.16% – 0.18%. This means that out of every 1,000 views on YouTube, only 16 – 18 views came from content that was violative in nature. This focus on responsibility has not only benefitted the creators, but the overall business too. In Q2 2021, the revenues obtained by YouTube advertisements crossed the $7 billion mark, due to which the YouTube content creators and partners were paid more as compared to the other quarters.

Compared to the previous year, the number of new channels joining YPP was more than doubled in the year 2020.

As stated by Mohan, new ‘checks’ have been introduced in the process, in which the creators’ uploads are automatically screened for copyright claims or ad suitability restrictions. This will help creators understand how their content is monetized, and make edits on the video before uploading.

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