Instagram, not Facebook is a real threat to YouTube's creator ecosystem

With today's news that Instagram will share revenue with creators for the first time through ads in IGTV I felt compelled to jot down some thoughts on how this could affect YouTube's dominance with monetizing social video.

YouTube has been the default backup monetization platform in the world of independent social media video and film creators. The money is not significant for many but there are also a lot of creators and companies that make significant money and run businesses off the platform's monetization

To this day, TikTok / Twitter / Twitch creators use YouTube to back up their content and make extra dollars. Even potentially become viable YouTube channels. I've seen it happen many times where off YouTube creators start with nothing only to see the traction on YouTube grow enough to then shift their focus to the platform.

Facebook tried 2+ years ago with not much traction but has been gaining ground with more content owners getting access to the partner program. The real kicker now is going to be the combination of Instagram and Facebook with creator monetization programs.

Fewer TikTok/Instagram creators will feel the need to migrate or even use YouTube.

YouTube's partner program is increasingly hard to get in and stay in thus pushing creators elsewhere.

YouTube has been going after big media to jump on the platform for years but will be forced to increase its efforts with established film/tv producers to keep views coming.

This will likely result in fewer native creators which could cause the next generation to use YouTube less.

TikTok already has a creator monetization program that's more in line with Twitch where but it's just a matter of time until it pulls a Facebook and copies its competition.

Increased competition, having more options for content creators is a good thing for creators so interesting times ahead.