By : Basel Khaled - Mohamed El Kholy

YouTube announced today the arrival of its YouTube Shorts Fund in each of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Algeria, Iraq, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon and Morocco.

Starting December 5, the company will reward creators and artists who make creative and unique Shorts for their contributions. The global US$100M fund was initially announced back in May and is already available in a number of markets around the world.

Shorts is a new feature YouTube rolled out in July for anyone who wants to create short, catchy videos using nothing but their mobile phones. As of July 2021, videos in YouTube’s Shorts player - which helps people around the world watch short videos on YouTube - are receiving over 15 billion daily views.  

“Since rolling out Shorts in the Middle East and North Africa earlier this year, we’ve seen great growth in viewership and creation. The Shorts Fund was the logical next step as we build our long-term monetization plan for Shorts,” said Tarek Amin, Director of YouTube in the Middle East and North Africa.

“YouTube has helped an entire generation of creators and artists turn their creativity into businesses, and in MENA the number of creators earning five and six figures from YouTube continues to grow year on year. The Fund is yet another tool in YouTube’s storytelling toolbox,” he added.

In order to be eligible for the fund, creators and must meet the following criteria: Channels need to have uploaded at least one eligible Short in the last 180 days < Channels need to abide by YouTube’s Community Guidelines, copyright rules, and monetization policies and Channels uploading videos with watermarks or logos from third-party social media platforms, non-original videos (for example, unedited clips from movies or TV shows), or videos reuploaded from other creator’s channels will not be eligible.