Technology companies that develop social networks and media platforms spend more and more money every year paying content creators.
The video service YouTube, which is owned by Google, reminded today that it is spending more and more on it. Over the past three years, the service has paid more than $30 billion to content creators, and the number of participants in the partner program has exceeded 2 million users and companies creating original content for the platform.
YouTube began using a portion of its advertising revenue to pay content creators in 2007. As a result, an extensive affiliate program was formed, which allows you to monetize videos published by users in various ways.
This was a timely decision, as at the time advertisers were boycotting the service due to the large number of objectionable videos. In 2018, the company significantly reduced the number of channels with activated monetization, tightening the rules, but now the number of participants in the affiliate program is growing again.
YouTube's main competitors, such as Facebook, TikTok and Instagram, have tried to lure content creators with generous payouts, but so far none of them have succeeded. YouTube remains the most popular platform.
YouTube also pays rewards to traditional media outlets that publish videos on the platform. We don't know how much of the total payouts go to companies, but according to experts, a huge chunk of payouts go to independent content creators who choose YouTube to monetize their videos.
Google will strengthen the protection of YouTube users' accounts
Google actively promotes two-factor (two-step) authentication in all its services. This week, the company announced that this verification method will become mandatory for YouTube content creators.
In a tweet from TeamYouTube, the company confirmed plans to strengthen the security of user accounts. The requirement will come into effect on November 1 of this year and primarily concerns access to YouTube Studio.
However, regular users who are not members of the YouTube Partner Program will be able to upload videos using the old simplified protection mechanisms.
The affiliate program, available in several countries, involves video monetization, so it needs additional protection. In addition, its members must meet a number of requirements, have more than 1000 subscribers, more than 4000 hours of viewing in the last 12 months, in addition to an associated AdSense account, etc.
Two-step authentication is available in your account settings. Usually, with this method of protection, users need to enter codes from SMS, codes from a previously saved list, or use other methods, such as the Google Authenticator mobile application.
