Before starting you have to decide where your hours go. The three platforms look alike and ask for entirely different things. Everything below comes from their own documentation.
The bars, side by side
| YouTube Shorts | TikTok | Instagram Reels | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Programme | Partner Programme (YPP) | Creator Rewards | Gifts · Bonuses |
| Minimum followers | 1,000 | 10,000 | Gifts at 500 |
| Additional condition | 4,000 watch hours in 12 months or 10M Shorts views in 90 days | 100,000 views in 30 days | Bonuses are invite-only |
| Video length | No limit | 🔴 Over one minute only | No limit |
| Per-view ad share | Yes (creators get 45%) | Yes | 🔴 None |
| Available in Korea | Yes | Yes (one of 8 countries) | Yes (Gifts) |
| Age | — | 18, 19 in South Korea | Gifts 18 · bonuses 19 |
By follower count the order looks easy → hard as Instagram, YouTube, TikTok. By where money actually appears, it runs the other way.
⏰ YouTube has a date on it
An announcement on 11 August 2026 doubles the entry bar for new applicants from 1 February 2027 (4,000 → 8,000 watch hours; 10M → 20M Shorts views). Creators already in the programme are unaffected.
From the same date, Shorts revenue sharing itself becomes conditional on 10 million valid Shorts views in the trailing 90 days. That one does not depend on when you joined, so it cannot be avoided.
The two rules are easy to conflate, so we wrote them up separately.
What YouTube changed on 11 August — reportWhere to start
- 1
1. First ask whether your subject sustains a minute
If it does, TikTok is the answer: the lowest bar of the three (10,000 followers and 100,000 views in 30 days) and Korea is an eligible country. If it does not, TikTok's rewards programme never applies to you at all.
- 2
2. Check today whether you qualify for Instagram's Breakthrough bonus
It is for creators new to Facebook or Instagram. Once your account grows you stop qualifying, so the start is the only window. Application-based, up to $5,000 across the first 90 days.
- 3
3. Turn on Instagram Gifts the moment you reach 500 followers
The lowest threshold anywhere in this comparison. At $0.01 per star the sums are small, but opening a payment route early is worth doing.
- 4
4. Join YouTube's partner programme before 31 January 2027
Enter under today's bar (1,000 subscribers plus 4,000 hours or 10M Shorts views) and the increase never applies to you. The 10M-per-90-days condition on Shorts revenue is separate and unavoidable.
⚠️ Watch time from the Shorts feed does not count toward YouTube's 4,000 hours. Post only Shorts and that route stays permanently closed; only the view route remains.
Where this works, and how you get paid
| YouTube | TikTok | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Eligible in Korea | Yes | Yes — 8 countries (US, UK, Germany, Japan, South Korea, France, Mexico, Brazil) | Yes |
| Account type | Channel | Personal accounts only (no business accounts) | Professional (business or creator) |
| Age | — | 18, 19 in South Korea | Gifts 18 · seasonal bonuses 19 |
| Payout | Through an AdSense account | Bank account — payout setup including tax information collection | Payout account required |
| Merchant of record | Not applicable — this is revenue share, not a sale | Not applicable | Not applicable |
| Tax treatment | ⚠️ We could not verify this. How a foreign platform's revenue share is treated locally needs professional advice | ⚠️ Same | ⚠️ Same |
🇰🇷 One item favours Korea. Instagram's documentation states that seasonal bonuses are available only to creators in South Korea and the United States. They are invite-only, and the Reels bonus requires at least 5 million bonus Reels views in each of the last three months.
Today
- Pick one subject and write one line on whether it can run past a minute
- Check whether you currently qualify as a creator new to the platform for Instagram's Breakthrough bonus
- If you have no YouTube channel, create one — after 31 January 2027 the bar doubles
What not to do
✓ Do
- Pick one platform and go to its threshold — spread across three and you clear none
- Count sponsored posts separately — all three exclude them from rewards
- Re-check the requirements each quarter — they changed five days ago
✕ Do not
- Mass-produce with AI — all three require original work, and volume without review is grounds for exclusion
- Trust any '$X per 1,000 views' figure — no platform publishes a rate
- Assume views are income — below the threshold the number is zero
Sources
All opened and checked on 16 August 2026.
- YouTube Partner Programme overview and eligibility
- YouTube official blog — the 1 February 2027 changes (11 August 2026)
- TikTok Creator Rewards Program eligibility
- Instagram bonuses — seasonal and Breakthrough eligibility
- Instagram Gifts — $0.01 per star
No document anywhere states what a view is worth. So this page does not either.