YouTube creator economy flourishes with $30 billion payments

Vine stars demanded monetization features, its owner Twitter refused, and many fled for YouTube. Platforms got scared. Twitch introduced tipping with Bits. By 2018, YouTube started testing Patreon-style Channel Memberships and Facebook offered Ad Breaks that paid video creators for mid-roll commercials. “It took 15 years of frustration and some ear... See more

$30 billion → The amount of ad revenue YouTube has paid out to creators in the last three years

While creator funds and one-time payments work in the short-term, YouTube's long-term goal is to help creators make a consistent living by giving them a cut of the platform’s revenue. There aren’t many other platforms that can offer creators what YouTube does: stable income, massive distribution, and tons of different ways to create content.