Short Video Creators Can Now Enjoy CNY1 Billion In Subsidies From Toutiao.com

Attention spans are shrinking, so money to grab eyeballs is increasing. A Chinese online video site is incentivizing online creators with a huge new fund.

Zhang Yiming, founder and chief executive officer of Toutiao.com, announced that the company will invest CNY1 billion to subsidize short video producers in China.

During the next 12 months, Toutiao.com will provide at least CNY1 billion in subsidies to short video makers who post their works on its website. Meanwhile, the website will give at least 100,000 weighted recommendations to each high-quality original short video.

Zhang revealed that short videos are the most common content form on Toutiao.com, exceeding pictures and texts. Short videos on Toutiao.com are played one billion times every day, of which 93% of the videos are within ten minutes and 74% of the videos are within five minutes. Toutiao.com says it has become the largest short video platform in China.

Toutiao.com already launched a subsidy plan in 2015, aiming to ensure that the income of 1,000 quality publisher accounts would be no less than CNY10,000 per month per account. Apart from financial support, Toutiao.com also improved its operations and product strategy.

At present, Toutiao.com has about 300,000 publisher accounts. Over the past six months, the average number of fans of each publisher account has nearly doubled.

In addition, Toutiao.com said that its publisher accounts will soon allow adding product urls into articles. So far, they have supported many e-commerce platforms, including Taobao, Tmall, JD, Youzan, and Weidian. This will allow key opinion leaders and content producers to provide quick ways to viewers to buy products mentioned in the videos.