How Much I Make on TikTok vs Shorts vs Reels (AND WHAT DOES TIKTOK WANT?!)

I remain fascinated by the tools these companies use to control or change the behavior of creators. One of the things that’s always seemed interesting about YouTube is that they just share a percent which, to me, says “We want people to build little media businesses here in whatever way they want.”

TikTok and Meta have always seemed much more “we want creators to help us achieve whatever our current company objectives are, which is very different.

Though I guess youtube did do that with the Google + integration…Maybe part of why it went over like a lead brick.

Thanks again Headspace!!

[anna._olsen_]

“ITS SUCH A CREATOR FRIENDLY hank said calmly.

[rix]

It's really interesting to hear a creator talk openly about how much money they're making on a platform

[Imperial_Squid]

YouTube limiting your shorts to 1 minute while being king of long form versus tiktok incentivizing long videos while being king of the swipables feels like the video platform version of that crab evolution meme

Edit: it's called "carcinization" for the curious, basically a bunch of different things have all separately evolved into crabs at various points implying crabs are the perfect being evolution wise, this is that but for video hosts

[insalaco]

I think I just realized why the last moment of many shorts are getting cut off... The creators must be making it a minute and 1 sec for tiktok monetization and cutting that last sec off for YouTube.

[dillonmccormick]

I see a lot of Youtube shorts ported from tiktoks that cut off a few seconds early and it’s very nice to have an explanation for that phenomenon now!

[Fry_Guy]

Really engaged with these YouTube Longs.

[CorvidCastle]

when you started advertising headspace i really thought it was a joke but then you just kept going and i was like "oh its an actual ad"

[austin]

The Headspace ad transition made me actually laugh out loud! 😂

[WhatsBliss]

TikTok as the Gen Z QVC is a very funny future to imagine

[thundermage]

This made me realize I don't use TikTok as TikTok. I always just go to the channels of the creators I like and check what new videos they uploaded, as I would on youtube. Also I don't even use the app, I just watch them on desktop, cause I don't watch videos on my phone.

[GLUBSCHI]

Fun fact: the tiktok shop thing is actually a huge thing in china already. There's many influencers who have made a whole career out of what is essentially social media telemarketing

[rosen_venus]

It's strange hearing that Tiktok is incentivizing longer content, since most of the complaints I ever hear regarding Tiktok was that the allowed lengths of videos was just... way too long. To be fair, the dialogue surrounding this was still more in terms of comparing it to Vine, and people at the time were largely using it sort of like a successor to Vine, at which it was failing miserably because without the shorter time limit people were dragging jokes out far beyond their entertainment value. But even now I see complaints from people because they are expecting short-form content and don't want creators to treat the app like a second version of Youtube where they can just host storytimes or vlogs. People talk about how Tiktok is rotting people's attention spans, and to an extent I'm sure it's true, but really, people were largely always unwilling to engage with longer content on Tiktok, probably for the same reason that you wouldn't go on Tumblr to see some model post photos of themselves on vacation. It's just not what you open the app for.

[zar]

I hated YouTube shorts until someone figured out that they are a really great way to promote their longer videos. Unfortunately a) very few people provide a link in their shorts to the original video, and b) YouTube makes it difficult to embed a link to the original video in the short of the description.

[wonder_platypus]

I think short form swipable content is honestly a huge issue. I know for me, someone in my late 20s i notice that short form content zones me out in a very creepy way. I can click off a YouTube video or get off of other SM apps but Shortform content really feels like it hijacks my brain and makes it honestly difficult to click away. I can FEEL the algorithm trying to keep me watching and i think that is going to have longterm effects on human attention spans.

I'm pulling this out of my ass. I don't have anything but my own personal experiences and a general understanding of human cognitive development. Very general.

[nikolai]

YouTube and TikTok really need to do a Freaky Friday before they both mess everything up

[Gnomes_]

Fascinating to see what's going on with other social media platforms & how monetisation works, thanks Hank! (Especially for actually giving specific numbers!)
It's especially interesting as someone who only uses tumblr, which has made me allergic to ads. I'd be interested to see some kind of discussion on what's going on with that, since they've recently just, given up on the platform or something? Not sure of any specifics, but from what I've heard it's a pretty weird situation!

[kagitsune]

I love J Draper's "long shorts" here on YT. I don't know if they're monetized, but they are wonderful.

[Doodlebob]

It's funny how much concern there is over tiktok and who controls it UNTIL there's a shop that makes you money.

[sarahjones]

I would love to see a deep dive into the scary ways people are advertising products on TikTok shop. I don't use the platform but the things I have seen from other creators makes me nervous

[jordanv]

To solve the 1m vs 1:01 issue, can't you target a 1:01 length video for tiktok, then in post edit the video to speed it up 2% to make it 59s long and upload to YouTube shorts?

Much like how Seinfeld was sped up in syndication to fit more ads in.