Dive Brief:
- Twitter is growing its Amplify Publisher Program to allow U.S. creators to opt into running pre-roll ads before their content, according to a blog post.
- Twitter will split revenue from the ads with creators, giving creators 70% of the money and taking 30% for itself.
- Twitter's monetization of creator content will be non-exclusive with other platforms.
We're expanding our revenue programs to empower creators to earn money in multiple ways! https://t.co/ebnJxNaZqA pic.twitter.com/OGlI9tbeMa
— Twitter Video (@video) August 30, 2016
Dive Insight:
With its new Amplify program, Twitter wants to make sure it has more and better video content on its platform. The move echoes Facebook's effort to populate its new live video streaming feature by signing 140 media companies and celebrities to Facebook Live contracts, paying out a combined total of $50 million.
The move makes it easier for creators to monetize their content on the platform — and comes under more attractive terms than YouTube's revenue sharing agreements with creators. Twitter will give creators 70% of the revenue, while YouTube only forks over 55%. The more appealing revenue split on Twitter gives the platform a boost in competing with YouTube for star video creators and influencers.
YouTube has been getting more into the live video streaming competition with Twitter and Facebook. YouTube boasts that its live video views are up 80% over last year, while live video postings are up 130%. In recognition of the competition from other social platforms, Google has been putting more emphasis on YouTube Live by phasing out Google+ Hangouts on Air in favor of pushing live video users to YouTube.
The move comes as Twitter has struggled to attract new users and grow its ad revenues. The expansion of the Amplify program could help bring more and better quality content to the platform, thus making it more engaging for users.
