YouTube Has Spent IDR 422 Trillion For Creator 'Salaries' During The Last 3 Years

Illustration (Irvan Meidianto / VOI)

JAKARTA - YouTube is the most popular video sharing platform in the world. Not a few content creators get additional income from videos uploaded to YouTube.

Even YouTube noted that it has paid more than USD 30 billion or around IDR 422.9 trillion to creators, artists and media organizations over the past three years. This was revealed in a letter from Youtube CEO Susan Wojcicki to content creators and discussing YouTube's growth.

Quoted from The Verge, Wednesday, January 27, Wojcicki said YouTube has grown and developed rapidly in the past few years. The number of new channels joining the YouTube Partner Program, which enables content creators to earn ad revenue, grow more than doubled in 2020.

YouTube also "contributed about USD 16 billion to US GDP in 2019, supporting the equivalent of 345,000 full-time jobs," according to the Oxford Economics report highlighted by Wojcicki.

The letter also discussed the work that YouTube team had to do, particularly transparency regarding advertising costs. Wojcicki noted that at "the scale we operate in, it's difficult for content creators to keep up with the Community Guidelines changes."

Wojcicki's letter stated that YouTube wanted to be better at communicating the changes to avoid giving warning to the channels. This is because after three consecutive warnings within a 90 day period, the channel will be terminated.

One example that emerged after the 2020 US presidential election was YouTube's decision to ban any video that triggers misinformation about the election.

The new policy took effect in December, but YouTube provides a grace period for creators to ensure that no videos violate the new policy.

YouTube is also facing increasing pressure to do a better job of moderating the platform and preventing the spread of misinformation. YouTube is now shifting their focus to vaccination misinformation.

"We always strive to get the right balance between openness and responsibility because we meet guidelines set by governments around the world," Wojcicki wrote.