YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki has published an open letter to the platform’s creators outlining its “priorities for 2022”.

In the letter, she covers “the state of the creator economy, innovation, supporting the work of creators, and protecting the YouTube community”.

Also in the letter, Wojcicki writes that the number of YouTube channels around the world making more than $10,000 a year is up 40% year over year, but doesn’t specify how many channels are earning that sum annually.

YouTube’s CEO also cites a series of reports from Oxford Economics that show the impact of the creator economy on nations economies.

“In 2020, as people around the world adapted to changing circumstances around the pandemic, YouTube’s creative ecosystem supported more than 800,000 jobs in 2020 in the United States, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Brazil, Australia, and the EU combined,” writes Wojcicki.

Discussing YouTube’s TikTok rival Shorts, Wojcicki notes that the short-form video tool has now hit the milestone of 5 trillion all-time views.

YouTube launched the initial beta of Shorts in September 2020 in India and rolled it out in the US in March 2021, followed by an expansion into Latin America, Canada and the UK in June, and more than 100 countries in July.

In October, the platform secured an exclusive preview of Ed Sheeran’s recent album, = (Equals).

In May 2021, YouTube launched its ‘Shorts Fund’, a $100 million fund to be distributed to creators over the course of 2021-2022, which Wojcicki says is now available in over 100 countries.

Other 2021 milestones cited by Wojcicki include YouTube hitting 50 million Music and Premium subscribers, (including trialers) and the news in June that YouTube says it paid more than $4 billion to the music industry over the previous 12 months.

“Creators are coming to our platform to share their lives, to make a living, and to shape the world around us in meaningful ways.”

Susan Wojcicki

Said Wojcicki: “The past few years have been a transition for all of us. We’ve adapted to changes in our lives we couldn’t have imagined before the pandemic.

“Along the way, we’ve seen incredible growth in the YouTube community.

Added Wojcicki: “Creators are coming to our platform to share their lives, to make a living, and to shape the world around us in meaningful ways.

“They’re bringing us together to do good in the world. We saw the impact of these efforts last year when MrBeast and Mark Rober launched Team Seas to raise funds to remove 30 million pounds of trash from our oceans, beaches, and rivers.

“At YouTube, we’re focused on growing our platform in the year ahead. Today I want to check in with an update on our key priorities: the state of the creator economy, innovation, supporting the work of creators, and protecting the YouTube community.”Music Business Worldwide