On the first-ever National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (NDT&R), we invite all Canadians to honour residential school survivors and reflect on the lasting impact of the residential school system on Indigenous Peoples. Since 2013, September 30 has been known as Orange Shirt Day, in recognition of the harm and tragedies of the residential school system. In June 2021, the federal government passed legislation to mark September 30 as NDT&R. Read on to learn about NDT&R’s origins, how you can observe the day, and what special programming APTN and the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) will be sharing during the inaugural holiday. 

Since 2013, September 30 has been recognized as Orange Shirt Day. This annual movement opens the door to a global conversation about residential schools in Canada. 

Phyllis Webstad recounted her first day attending St. Joseph Mission Residential School at six years old. Webstad described how all of her clothes were taken from her upon arrival, including the orange shirt her grandmother had recently gifted her. Today, the orange shirt represents the Indigenous identities stolen from the children forced into residential schools. In light of the recovery of more than 1,300 unmarked graves on the grounds of former residential schools just this year, it is a day to reflect on the tragic legacy these schools have left behind. 

September 30 marks the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. As part of the Canadian government’s commitment to reconciliation, legislation was passed to make NDT&R a federal holiday. This is not just any holiday, but a day for doing the work of reconciliation and honouring Indigenous Peoples. NDT&R responds to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) Call to Action 80. The TRC’s Calls to Action are not political. Rather, they were developed so that all Canadians can walk together on a shared path towards reconciliation. 

As a federal holiday, NDT&R applies to federal public sector employees, federally-regulated private sector workplaces and most federal crown corporations. British Columbia, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, Yukon and the Northwest Territories have also recognized September 30 as a statutory holiday. 

NDT&R is also part of Truth and Reconciliation Week, a week of educational programming hosted by the NCTR. The NCTR derives its mandate from the TRC's Calls to Action and is a place for dialogue and learning, where the truths of residential school survivors are kept for future generations. The NCTR’s mandate is to build a foundation for reconciliation through public education about the residential school system and Canada’s long legacy of colonialism and violence. 

There are many ways to participate in this day of remembrance and reconciliation. Allies are encouraged to wear an orange shirt in solidarity with Indigenous communities, but that alone is not enough. 

Here are some other meaningful actions you can take today and going forward: 

• Read books by Indigenous writers. Here are some of our favourites among many: Seven Fallen Feathers by Tanya Talaga, The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline, Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead, Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot, A Mind Spread Out on the Ground by Alicia Elliott, There There by Tommy Orange, and Katherena Vermette’s highly-anticipated new novel, The Strangers. 
• Attend a public lecture on Indigenous history. 
• Make an “Every Child Matters” sign to display at home. 
• Participate in a memorial walk or attend an event hosted by Indigenous community members. 
• Donate to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation and the Indian Residential School Survivors Society. 
• Review the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action and commit to at least one.
• Tune in to Indigenous programming. APTN has an incredible lineup of programs airing from September 30 — October 1, which is sure to educate and inspire. 
• Watch sessions from NCTR’s Truth and Reconciliation Week, featuring survivors, children of survivors, Elders, Knowledge Keepers, artists and leaders from many nations and cultures. 
• Watch theNational Truth and Reconciliation Day special broadcast from APTN, CBC and the NCTR at 8 pm ET (9 p.m. AT, 9:30 p.m. NT). 
• Learn about the history of the residential school system and its ongoing consequences via APTN’s informative articles on the topic, available here. 

NDT&R is a day for action, remembrance, reflection and learning about the colonial history of the lands we live on. We all have a role to play in reconciliation.

Please take a moment to honour the survivors and communities who have so courageously shared their stories. Observe a minute of silence, put out a small pair of shoes or light a candle for the children who never made it home. What matters is that you do it with intention.

Source: Official Google Canada Blog

The deadline to apply for this eight-week, fully remote program is November 14.

When I joined The Tyee in 2006, it was already several years into its scrappy startup journey. Once referred to as a blog by mainstream Canadian media, it has since won numerous journalism awards, pioneered the concept of solutions journalism, and added more than 4,000 paying supporters who wanted more thoughtful, feisty, and independent reporting in a media ecosystem considered one of the most consolidated in the world. 

The Tyee is just one of several independent news publications in Canada that consistently punches above its weight. We need more like them. 

That’s why I’m working with LION Publishers to bring the Google News Initiative Startups Boot Camp to Canada. The boot camp is an eight-week, fully remote program specifically for aspiring Canadian news entrepreneurs to launch independent digital publications for communities that are most in need of accurate and impactful news and information. No fees, no tuition, no income sharing arrangement. No financial barriers to your success. Just the hands-on support you need to become independent, and stay independent. Request an application here and apply by November 14 at midnight PT. 

We’re also incredibly grateful to our partners Canadian Association of Black Journalists, Canadian Journalists of Colour, Journalists for Human Rights, and On Canada Project for helping us recruit and evaluate prospective boot camp participants. We hope to reach far beyond the traditional journalism community and ensure a cohort that is representative of Canada’s diversity. 

Over the eight-week program, the boot camp will walk each participant through the basic steps of getting a news business up and running. That distinction — a business versus a project — is important. We focus on helping you lay the foundation of a financially sustainable publication. That includes how to set clear goals, research customers, price your product, articulate your value proposition and run experiments to navigate toward success. 

What platform you choose to launch on is entirely up to you. We’re not prescriptive. We’re seeing the sprouts of a new media ecosystem on platforms like YouTube and Instagram — reaching hundreds of thousands of young Canadians in new and novel ways — and we’re excited to hear what ideas you have to serve your community. SMS? Podcast? TikTok? Let’s imagine together. 

The program is unique in several other ways, too: 

• Upon acceptance, you receive a complimentary one-year membership to the professional association LION Publishers, which gives you access to a network of nearly 400 local independent online news publishers across the U.S. and Canada, as well as tools, resources, and ongoing professional development opportunities that simply don’t exist in Canada right now. 
• The program doesn’t end when you graduate. We will provide one-on-one coaching to you and your team for a year after you’ve completed the boot camp curriculum. 
• It’s an incredibly hands-on program. This isn’t academic. We don’t do mock interviews or experiments. No book reports to hand in. This is the real thing: You’re working on taking your concept from idea to launch. (Every single participant in our boot camp last year launched their initiative publicly at the end of the eight weeks). 
• Your team of coaches are veterans of both journalism startups and mainstream news in Canada, and the curriculum is the result of several years of research and hundreds of interviews with news startup founders. We’ve also taken the time to adapt our battle-tested curriculum to the realities of operating in the Canadian context. So we’ll be talking about the logistics of starting a business or non-profit journalism project in Canada and addressing country-specific questions like tax status, business registration, legal preparedness, and the Qualified Canadian Journalism Organization Designation. 

We will also look at ways to strengthen Canada's media ecosystem by tackling issues like how to ensure newsrooms reflect the diversity of the communities they serve and how to increase support for Canadian communities currently under-served by news.

 

Interested in learning more? The FAQ section of our site has detailed answers about criteria for your news business idea, the boot camp curriculum, the time commitment involved and more. 

If you have more questions or are feeling intimidated to apply for this opportunity, come to an info session (dates/times listed below), where we’ll answer questions about the program and application, and have a separate breakout room to help you workshop your application. 

November 4 at 5 p.m. ET 

Source: Official Google Canada Blog

The deadline to apply for this eight-week, fully remote program is November 14.

When I joined The Tyee in 2006, it was already several years into its scrappy startup journey. Once referred to as a blog by mainstream Canadian media, it has since won numerous journalism awards, pioneered the concept of solutions journalism, and added more than 4,000 paying supporters who wanted more thoughtful, feisty, and independent reporting in a media ecosystem considered one of the most consolidated in the world. 

The Tyee is just one of several independent news publications in Canada that consistently punches above its weight. We need more like them. 

That’s why I’m working with LION Publishers to bring the Google News Initiative Startups Boot Camp to Canada. The boot camp is an eight-week, fully remote program specifically for aspiring Canadian news entrepreneurs to launch independent digital publications for communities that are most in need of accurate and impactful news and information. No fees, no tuition, no income sharing arrangement. No financial barriers to your success. Just the hands-on support you need to become independent, and stay independent. Request an application here and apply by November 14 at midnight PT. 

We’re also incredibly grateful to our partners Canadian Association of Black Journalists, Canadian Journalists of Colour, Journalists for Human Rights, and On Canada Project for helping us recruit and evaluate prospective boot camp participants. We hope to reach far beyond the traditional journalism community and ensure a cohort that is representative of Canada’s diversity. 

Over the eight-week program, the boot camp will walk each participant through the basic steps of getting a news business up and running. That distinction — a business versus a project — is important. We focus on helping you lay the foundation of a financially sustainable publication. That includes how to set clear goals, research customers, price your product, articulate your value proposition and run experiments to navigate toward success. 

What platform you choose to launch on is entirely up to you. We’re not prescriptive. We’re seeing the sprouts of a new media ecosystem on platforms like YouTube and Instagram — reaching hundreds of thousands of young Canadians in new and novel ways — and we’re excited to hear what ideas you have to serve your community. SMS? Podcast? TikTok? Let’s imagine together. 

The program is unique in several other ways, too: 

• Upon acceptance, you receive a complimentary one-year membership to the professional association LION Publishers, which gives you access to a network of nearly 400 local independent online news publishers across the U.S. and Canada, as well as tools, resources, and ongoing professional development opportunities that simply don’t exist in Canada right now. 
• The program doesn’t end when you graduate. We will provide one-on-one coaching to you and your team for a year after you’ve completed the boot camp curriculum. 
• It’s an incredibly hands-on program. This isn’t academic. We don’t do mock interviews or experiments. No book reports to hand in. This is the real thing: You’re working on taking your concept from idea to launch. (Every single participant in our boot camp last year launched their initiative publicly at the end of the eight weeks). 
• Your team of coaches are veterans of both journalism startups and mainstream news in Canada, and the curriculum is the result of several years of research and hundreds of interviews with news startup founders. We’ve also taken the time to adapt our battle-tested curriculum to the realities of operating in the Canadian context. So we’ll be talking about the logistics of starting a business or non-profit journalism project in Canada and addressing country-specific questions like tax status, business registration, legal preparedness, and the Qualified Canadian Journalism Organization Designation. 

We will also look at ways to strengthen Canada's media ecosystem by tackling issues like how to ensure newsrooms reflect the diversity of the communities they serve and how to increase support for Canadian communities currently under-served by news.

 

Interested in learning more? The FAQ section of our site has detailed answers about criteria for your news business idea, the boot camp curriculum, the time commitment involved and more. 

If you have more questions or are feeling intimidated to apply for this opportunity, come to an info session (dates/times listed below), where we’ll answer questions about the program and application, and have a separate breakout room to help you workshop your application. 

November 4 at 5 p.m. ET 

Source: Official Google Canada Blog

We laid the groundwork for this modern-day creator economy over 14 years ago when we launched the YouTube Partner Program (YPP) — a first-of-its kind business model that shares the majority of revenue generated on the platform with creators. We recently crossed a new milestone with over 2 million creators globally now part of our monetization program. Over the last three years, we’ve paid more than $30 billion USD to creators, artists and media companies. And in Q2 2021, we paid more to YouTube creators and partners than in any other previous quarter. 

Here in Canada, creators continue to thrive on the platform, with the number of Canadian YouTube channels making six figures or more in revenue up 30% year-over-year as of December 2020. And we're not stopping there, we continue to work with creators in Canada and around the world to encourage even more growth on the platform. 

We’re investing in new monetization options for creators beyond advertising, including Paid Digital Goods, merchandise, branded content and more. Our shared goal with creators is to help them build robust and diversified business models that suit their unique content and community of fans. 

Jeff Thorman, a general contractor from Ottawa with over 25 years of experience, created his YouTube channel Home RenoVision DIY to share his knowledge and help homeowners learn new home improvement skills. Jeff utilizes the Channel Memberships feature to offer exclusive content and additional perks to monthly paying members, further diversifying his revenue streams on the platform. Two years ago, Jeff shifted his business to focus on YouTube full time. Besides memberships, he earns money from ads, sponsorships and affiliate income. 

And there are thousands of creators turned entrepreneurs on YouTube like Jeff from all walks of life, who use the platform to turn their traditional careers, their hobbies and passions into a sustainable, revenue-generating business. 

Today we're launching the Shorts Fund in Canada, adding to our growing list of how artists and creators make money and build a business on YouTube. Canadian creators have been early adopters of Shorts such as multi award winning Canadian percussionist Joe Porter. Since uploading his first Short in April 2021, Joe Porter's channel has received more than 250M views and gained more than 875K subscribers. 

Creators and artists now have 10 ways to make money and build a business on YouTube. Here’s how: 

1. Shorts Fund
The YouTube Shorts Fund, a $100M fund distributed over 2021-2022, is now available to Canadian creators! Each month, we'll reach out to thousands of eligible creators around the world to claim a payment from the fund. 

Creators can make anywhere from $100 to $10,000 based on viewership and engagement on their Shorts each month. The Shorts Fund is the first step in our journey to build a monetization model for Shorts on YouTube and is not limited to just creators in YPP — any creator that meets our eligibility criteria can participate. Check out all the details here. 

We're also dedicated to providing funding via our Black Voices Fund and Kids Fund. 

2. Ads
Ads have been at the core of creators’ revenue streams, and continue to be the main way that creators can earn money on YouTube. Creators receive the majority of the revenue generated from ads on YouTube. 

3. YouTube Premium
YouTube Premium is a paid subscription option which enables members to enjoy ad-free content, background playback, downloads and premium access to the YouTube Music app. The majority of subscription revenue goes to YouTube partners. 

4. Channel Memberships
With channel memberships, creators can offer exclusive perks and content to viewers who join their channel as a monthly paying member at prices set by the creator. 

5. Merchandise
The merch shelf allows channels to showcase their official branded merchandise right on their watch page on YouTube. Creators can choose from 40 different retailers globally.

6. Super Chat
Fans watching livestreams and Premieres can purchase a Super Chat: a highlighted message in the chat that stands out from the crowd to get even more of their favorite creator’s attention. 

7. Super Thanks
Soon, more viewers will be able to give thanks and show support on uploaded videos through Super Thanks as it continues to roll out in Canada. As an added bonus, fans will get a distinct, colorful comment to highlight the purchase, which creators can respond to.

8. Super Stickers
Another way fans can deepen their connection with creators during live streams and Premieres is with Super Stickers, which allows fans to purchase a fun sticker that stands out.

9. Ticketing
Music fans can learn about upcoming concerts and with a simple click, go directly to our ticketing partners’ sites to purchase tickets. 

10. YouTube BrandConnect
Through YouTube BrandConnect (previously known as FameBit), we’ve been making it easier for creators and brands to create branded content that is both authentic and financially rewarding. BrandConnect brings insights, measurement and industry expertise to the influencer marketing landscape -- seamlessly connecting brands, creators and fans.

We’re driven to keep developing new ways for creators to continue to grow sustainable businesses on YouTube. As creators keep innovating and pushing the boundaries to produce engaging and innovative content, we'll continue to deliver more ways to help them do just that. 

Source: Official Google Canada Blog

We laid the groundwork for this modern-day creator economy over 14 years ago when we launched the YouTube Partner Program (YPP) — a first-of-its kind business model that shares the majority of revenue generated on the platform with creators. We recently crossed a new milestone with over 2 million creators globally now part of our monetization program. Over the last three years, we’ve paid more than $30 billion USD to creators, artists and media companies. And in Q2 2021, we paid more to YouTube creators and partners than in any other previous quarter. 

Here in Canada, creators continue to thrive on the platform, with the number of Canadian YouTube channels making six figures or more in revenue up 30% year-over-year as of December 2020. And we're not stopping there, we continue to work with creators in Canada and around the world to encourage even more growth on the platform. 

We’re investing in new monetization options for creators beyond advertising, including Paid Digital Goods, merchandise, branded content and more. Our shared goal with creators is to help them build robust and diversified business models that suit their unique content and community of fans. 

Jeff Thorman, a general contractor from Ottawa with over 25 years of experience, created his YouTube channel Home RenoVision DIY to share his knowledge and help homeowners learn new home improvement skills. Jeff utilizes the Channel Memberships feature to offer exclusive content and additional perks to monthly paying members, further diversifying his revenue streams on the platform. Two years ago, Jeff shifted his business to focus on YouTube full time. Besides memberships, he earns money from ads, sponsorships and affiliate income. 

And there are thousands of creators turned entrepreneurs on YouTube like Jeff from all walks of life, who use the platform to turn their traditional careers, their hobbies and passions into a sustainable, revenue-generating business. 

Today we're launching the Shorts Fund in Canada, adding to our growing list of how artists and creators make money and build a business on YouTube. Canadian creators have been early adopters of Shorts such as multi award winning Canadian percussionist Joe Porter. Since uploading his first Short in April 2021, Joe Porter's channel has received more than 250M views and gained more than 875K subscribers. 

Creators and artists now have 10 ways to make money and build a business on YouTube. Here’s how: 

1. Shorts Fund
The YouTube Shorts Fund, a $100M fund distributed over 2021-2022, is now available to Canadian creators! Each month, we'll reach out to thousands of eligible creators around the world to claim a payment from the fund. 

Creators can make anywhere from $100 to $10,000 based on viewership and engagement on their Shorts each month. The Shorts Fund is the first step in our journey to build a monetization model for Shorts on YouTube and is not limited to just creators in YPP — any creator that meets our eligibility criteria can participate. Check out all the details here. 

We're also dedicated to providing funding via our Black Voices Fund and Kids Fund. 

2. Ads
Ads have been at the core of creators’ revenue streams, and continue to be the main way that creators can earn money on YouTube. Creators receive the majority of the revenue generated from ads on YouTube. 

3. YouTube Premium
YouTube Premium is a paid subscription option which enables members to enjoy ad-free content, background playback, downloads and premium access to the YouTube Music app. The majority of subscription revenue goes to YouTube partners. 

4. Channel Memberships
With channel memberships, creators can offer exclusive perks and content to viewers who join their channel as a monthly paying member at prices set by the creator. 

5. Merchandise
The merch shelf allows channels to showcase their official branded merchandise right on their watch page on YouTube. Creators can choose from 40 different retailers globally.

6. Super Chat
Fans watching livestreams and Premieres can purchase a Super Chat: a highlighted message in the chat that stands out from the crowd to get even more of their favorite creator’s attention. 

7. Super Thanks
Soon, more viewers will be able to give thanks and show support on uploaded videos through Super Thanks as it continues to roll out in Canada. As an added bonus, fans will get a distinct, colorful comment to highlight the purchase, which creators can respond to.

8. Super Stickers
Another way fans can deepen their connection with creators during live streams and Premieres is with Super Stickers, which allows fans to purchase a fun sticker that stands out.

9. Ticketing
Music fans can learn about upcoming concerts and with a simple click, go directly to our ticketing partners’ sites to purchase tickets. 

10. YouTube BrandConnect
Through YouTube BrandConnect (previously known as FameBit), we’ve been making it easier for creators and brands to create branded content that is both authentic and financially rewarding. BrandConnect brings insights, measurement and industry expertise to the influencer marketing landscape -- seamlessly connecting brands, creators and fans.

We’re driven to keep developing new ways for creators to continue to grow sustainable businesses on YouTube. As creators keep innovating and pushing the boundaries to produce engaging and innovative content, we'll continue to deliver more ways to help them do just that. 

Source: Official Google Canada Blog

Source: Official Google Canada Blog

Earlier this summer we shared details about how the Google for Startups Accelerator program is expanding its support for founders from underrepresented groups. In addition to our Black Founders accelerator program, the expansion included a second year of programming specifically designed for women-led startups in North America. 

We launched the inaugural Google for Startups Accelerator: Women Founders program in 2020, in order to address gender disparity in the startup ecosystem and provide high-quality mentorship opportunities and support for women founders. Studies showed that only 16% of small and medium sized businesses were owned by women, and that women often lack access to venture capitalist funding and accelerator programs to help launch and scale up their businesses. 

This year, we have designed another great program for our women founders, and today we are thrilled to announce the 12 women-led startups joining our class of 2021. We’re also excited to share that four Canadian startups from across the country are part of this year’s cohort. 

Without further ado, meet the Google For Startups Accelerator: Women Founders class of 2021! 

• Aquacycl (Escondido, California): Aquacycl makes energy-neutral wastewater treatment a reality, offering modular on-site systems to treat high-strength organic waste streams. The BioElectrochemical Treatment Technology (BETT) is the first commercially viable microbial fuel cell, which generates direct electricity from wastewater, treating untreatable streams and reducing wastewater management costs by 20-60%. 
• Braze Mobility (Toronto, Ontario): Braze Mobility provides affordable navigation solutions for wheelchair users. It developed the world's first blind spot sensor system that can be attached to any wheelchair, transforming it into a smart wheelchair that automatically detects obstacles and provides alerts to the user through intuitive lights, sounds, and vibrations. 
• Claira (Grand Rapids, Michigan): Claira is a competency analytics engine that helps organizations understand their people and hire better. 
• ImagoAI (Saint Paul, Minnesota): ImagoAI’s proprietary AI solution does real-time food safety and quality testing at food manufacturing facilities and on the farms. Its solutions help companies reduce production line hold times by more than 90%, delivering consistent quality products, and reduce waste by early inspection.
• Journey Foods (Austin, Texas): Journey Foods solves food science and supply chain inefficiencies with software in order to help companies feed 8 billion people better. They build enterprise technology that improves product management, ingredient intelligence, and manufacturing insights for CPG companies, grocery stores, suppliers, and manufacturers.
• Nyquist Data (Palo Alto, California): Nyquist Data helps companies around the world access critical data and insights, which maximizes efficiency, resources, and results for innovation.
• Paperstack (Toronto, Ontario): Paperstack is an all-in-one platform that helps self-employed individuals with incorporation, bookkeeping, and taxes.
• Pocketnest (Ann Arbor, Michigan): Pocketnest is a comprehensive financial planning tool targeting genX and millennials. The company licenses its software to financial institutions and employers, helping them connect with a younger audience and grow their business. Based on psychology, behavioral science and coaching, it leads users through all ten themes of personal finances, resulting in actionable items and recommendations customized for each user.
• SAFETYDOCS Global (Vancouver, British Columbia): SAFETYDOCS Global is a document management solutions platform that streamlines and automates permitting and licensing documentation workflows.
• Schoolytics (Washington, DC): Schoolytics, the Student Data Platform, enables schools to connect disparate student datasets, including the student information system (SIS), learning management systems (LMS), and assessments, to transform data into meaningful insights and action. Its web-based tool supports data-driven decision making through real-time analytics and reporting.
• Tengiva (Montreal, Quebec): Tengiva is the first digital platform enabling real-time supply chain in the textile industry by optimizing the typical months-long procurement process into a single-click operation.
• ThisWay (Austin, Texas): ThisWay matches all people to all jobs, fairly and without bias. The web platform accurately delivers qualified talent, while increasing diversity and inclusion so ROI is optimized. 

Starting on September 27, the 10-week intensive virtual program will bring the best of Google's programs, products, people and technology to help these businesses reach their goals. Participating startups receive deep mentorship on technical challenges and machine learning, as well as connections to relevant teams across Google. The startups will also receive nontechnical programming to help address some of the unique barriers faced by women founders in the startup ecosystem. 

We are excited to welcome these 12 women-led businesses to our Google for Startups Accelerator community, and look forward to working with them this fall! 

Source: Official Google Canada Blog

Over fourteen years ago, we launched the YouTube Partner Program (YPP), a first-of-its-kind open monetization program, where anyone who qualified could join and start making money. In fact, we share over half of the revenue generated with creators. And today, YPP continues to be one of the largest drivers of the creator economy in the world. Creators who are part of YPP can make money and earn a living from their content on YouTube with ten different monetization features (and we keep adding more), from advertiser revenue to selling merchandise. Over the last three years, we’ve paid more than $30 billion to creators, artists, and media companies. 

Now, more than two million creators participate in YPP globally, including many who might not otherwise have had a platform, from tech reviewers to entertainers. And many of these creators are generating jobs and contributing to local and global economies. In 2019 alone, YouTube’s creative ecosystem supported the equivalent of 345,000 full-time jobs, just in the US. This also means that quality content on everything from how to fix a garage door, to music videos, to lectures on advanced physics, are available for free, to audiences around the world. 

Protecting the creative economy 

This unique business model only works when our viewers, creators and advertisers all have confidence that we are living up to our responsibility as a business. Over the past few years, we’ve been investing in the policies, resources and products needed to protect the community and the vast majority of creators who are producing incredible content, while cracking down on the tiny fraction of bad actors. In fact, in Q4 2020, YouTube’s violative view rate was at 0.16-0.18%, which means that out of every 10,000 views on YouTube, only 16-18 come from violative content. As a result, we’ve seen our focus on responsibility benefit creators and our overall business. In Q2 2021, revenues from YouTube ads crossed $7B and we paid more to YouTube creators and partners than in any quarter in our history. 

In addition to our Community Guidelines, creators need to meet an even higher bar to join the YouTube Partner Program and make money on YouTube. Every channel applying to YPP undergoes review by a trained rater to make sure it meets our policies. We also regularly review and remove channels that don’t comply with our policies. For example, we’ve been removing channels from YPP that repeatedly brush up against our hate speech, harassment and misinformation policies. 

Since advertising has been at the core of creators’ revenue, we need to ensure that advertisers have faith in our systems and feel comfortable with where their ads appear. Advertisers do not want their brands associated with problematic content and actors, and we’ve seen first-hand that they vote with their feet. When advertisers lack trust in our systems, they scale back their spend on YouTube. This affects the entire ecosystem, not just the very small number of bad actors. 

We’ve partnered closely with advertisers to address their feedback, and today we're at least 99% effective at ensuring brand safety for advertisers. As a result, YouTube was the first digital platform to be accredited for content level brand safety by the Media Rating Council. YouTube was also one of the founding members of the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), a multi-stakeholder initiative to improve digital and brand safety with advertisers. As part of this initiative, we’ve helped establish a set of industry standards to define content not suitable for advertising. 

With improved systems and increased advertiser trust, we’re growing the pie and making channels in YPP more successful as a whole. The number of new channels joining YPP in 2020 more than doubled when compared to the year before. And the number of YouTube channels making 6 figures in revenue or more is up more than 35% year over year in the US. 

Extending our trust in YPP Creators 

Creators in YPP have access to programs and products that give them more control over the monetization of their channel. With our Self-Certification program, they can rate their own videos against our advertiser-friendly guidelines. Our systems verify creators’ ratings, and the more accurate they are, the more our system uses their ratings over time. As a result, creators who accurately rate their content have seen a reduction in classifier mistakes by more than 50%. 

We’ve also rolled out a new “Checks” process which automatically screens creators’ uploads for potential copyright claims and ad suitability restrictions. This helps creators understand how their videos will monetize and make edits before uploading if they want. 

As a result of these efforts, the vast majority of content uploaded by channels in YPP meets the ad-friendly thresholds and is suitable for all advertisers. In fact, just a single digit percent of videos monetized by creators receive a yellow dollar sign icon (meaning they show limited or no ads). This is a win for advertisers and creators alike. 

Helping Creators Expand their Business 

Over the past few years, we’ve been working to build a multi-faceted business that helps YouTube creators grow and diversify their revenue. We now offer ten different ways for creators to earn revenue, such as ads, subscriptions, branded content, merchandising, Paid Digital Goods and more. 

We continue investing in new tools that help creators earn money while strengthening the relationship with their viewers, such as our new Super Thanks tool. And because we’re deeply committed to supporting the next generation of creators, we also offer other ways for creators (both on YPP and outside of YPP) to make money, such as the Shorts Fund.

Finding new ways to reward trusted creators financially and help them ramp up their businesses will always be a top priority for us. 

YouTube is built on the premise of openness, which allows millions of creators to find a voice and a community. However, we set a higher bar for what channels can make money on our platform. We have every incentive to continue to tackle problematic content on our platform: it is not just the right thing for our viewers and creators, it’s also good for business. We’ll continue our responsibility work even as we continue to grow the YouTube Partner Program, and we consider these investments core to the future success of the creator economy at large.

Source: Official Google Canada Blog

Over fourteen years ago, we launched the YouTube Partner Program (YPP), a first-of-its-kind open monetization program, where anyone who qualified could join and start making money. In fact, we share over half of the revenue generated with creators. And today, YPP continues to be one of the largest drivers of the creator economy in the world. Creators who are part of YPP can make money and earn a living from their content on YouTube with ten different monetization features (and we keep adding more), from advertiser revenue to selling merchandise. Over the last three years, we’ve paid more than $30 billion to creators, artists, and media companies. 

Now, more than two million creators participate in YPP globally, including many who might not otherwise have had a platform, from tech reviewers to entertainers. And many of these creators are generating jobs and contributing to local and global economies. In 2019 alone, YouTube’s creative ecosystem supported the equivalent of 345,000 full-time jobs, just in the US. This also means that quality content on everything from how to fix a garage door, to music videos, to lectures on advanced physics, are available for free, to audiences around the world. 

Protecting the creative economy 

This unique business model only works when our viewers, creators and advertisers all have confidence that we are living up to our responsibility as a business. Over the past few years, we’ve been investing in the policies, resources and products needed to protect the community and the vast majority of creators who are producing incredible content, while cracking down on the tiny fraction of bad actors. In fact, in Q4 2020, YouTube’s violative view rate was at 0.16-0.18%, which means that out of every 10,000 views on YouTube, only 16-18 come from violative content. As a result, we’ve seen our focus on responsibility benefit creators and our overall business. In Q2 2021, revenues from YouTube ads crossed $7B and we paid more to YouTube creators and partners than in any quarter in our history. 

In addition to our Community Guidelines, creators need to meet an even higher bar to join the YouTube Partner Program and make money on YouTube. Every channel applying to YPP undergoes review by a trained rater to make sure it meets our policies. We also regularly review and remove channels that don’t comply with our policies. For example, we’ve been removing channels from YPP that repeatedly brush up against our hate speech, harassment and misinformation policies. 

Since advertising has been at the core of creators’ revenue, we need to ensure that advertisers have faith in our systems and feel comfortable with where their ads appear. Advertisers do not want their brands associated with problematic content and actors, and we’ve seen first-hand that they vote with their feet. When advertisers lack trust in our systems, they scale back their spend on YouTube. This affects the entire ecosystem, not just the very small number of bad actors. 

We’ve partnered closely with advertisers to address their feedback, and today we're at least 99% effective at ensuring brand safety for advertisers. As a result, YouTube was the first digital platform to be accredited for content level brand safety by the Media Rating Council. YouTube was also one of the founding members of the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), a multi-stakeholder initiative to improve digital and brand safety with advertisers. As part of this initiative, we’ve helped establish a set of industry standards to define content not suitable for advertising. 

With improved systems and increased advertiser trust, we’re growing the pie and making channels in YPP more successful as a whole. The number of new channels joining YPP in 2020 more than doubled when compared to the year before. And the number of YouTube channels making 6 figures in revenue or more is up more than 35% year over year in the US. 

Extending our trust in YPP Creators 

Creators in YPP have access to programs and products that give them more control over the monetization of their channel. With our Self-Certification program, they can rate their own videos against our advertiser-friendly guidelines. Our systems verify creators’ ratings, and the more accurate they are, the more our system uses their ratings over time. As a result, creators who accurately rate their content have seen a reduction in classifier mistakes by more than 50%. 

We’ve also rolled out a new “Checks” process which automatically screens creators’ uploads for potential copyright claims and ad suitability restrictions. This helps creators understand how their videos will monetize and make edits before uploading if they want. 

As a result of these efforts, the vast majority of content uploaded by channels in YPP meets the ad-friendly thresholds and is suitable for all advertisers. In fact, just a single digit percent of videos monetized by creators receive a yellow dollar sign icon (meaning they show limited or no ads). This is a win for advertisers and creators alike. 

Helping Creators Expand their Business 

Over the past few years, we’ve been working to build a multi-faceted business that helps YouTube creators grow and diversify their revenue. We now offer ten different ways for creators to earn revenue, such as ads, subscriptions, branded content, merchandising, Paid Digital Goods and more. 

We continue investing in new tools that help creators earn money while strengthening the relationship with their viewers, such as our new Super Thanks tool. And because we’re deeply committed to supporting the next generation of creators, we also offer other ways for creators (both on YPP and outside of YPP) to make money, such as the Shorts Fund.

Finding new ways to reward trusted creators financially and help them ramp up their businesses will always be a top priority for us. 

YouTube is built on the premise of openness, which allows millions of creators to find a voice and a community. However, we set a higher bar for what channels can make money on our platform. We have every incentive to continue to tackle problematic content on our platform: it is not just the right thing for our viewers and creators, it’s also good for business. We’ll continue our responsibility work even as we continue to grow the YouTube Partner Program, and we consider these investments core to the future success of the creator economy at large.

Source: Official Google Canada Blog

Given the importance of accurate election information, we recognize that Google and YouTube have a role to play in helping connect Canadians to authoritative information and reducing the spread of misinformation. That’s why Google and YouTube support the Declaration of Online Electoral Integrity, which aims to safeguard the digital accessibility of accurate, trusted and up-to-date election information, for all Canadians. Since our earliest days, we have been committed to supporting democratic processes around the world which is why we’ve had Community Guidelines on YouTube and Content Policies for Google Search, which govern what videos or content are allowed, or will be surfaced, on the platform, and which we rigorously enforce. 

Google Search - Connecting Canadians to useful and authoritative information 

We fundamentally design our Search systems to prioritize relevant information from credible sources. We see billions of search queries every day, so we take an unbiased approach to delivering information that is both relevant and reliable. We also provide useful features, which not only make authoritative information easily accessible, but also helps users understand the information they find in Google Search. In order to ensure we’re providing the most helpful information, we have a set of policies that apply to our Google Search features, such as featured snippets, Autocomplete and Knowledge Panels. 

The quality of Google Search is safeguarded by evaluations from search quality raters, who train and test our systems. Search quality raters orient our rankings around delivering high-quality information, particularly for important topics relating to a user’s wellbeing and livelihood, such as health and civics information. We have definitions in our publicly-available Search Quality Rater Guidelines, which outline the characteristics of web pages that may aim to mislead users, promote hate, or otherwise deliver low-quality information; these guidelines define what constitutes high-quality information. 

For topics regarding health, finance, or civics, where authoritative information is crucial, we place an even greater emphasis on the digital signals of expertise and authoritativeness. This way, we can have greater confidence that the information appearing at the top of the results page is trusted information. 

YouTube - A platform for authoritative content 

On YouTube, over the last couple years we’ve significantly increased our investments in the systems and processes that enable us to effectively remove violative videos, raise up authoritative content, and reduce the spread of borderline content, all while offering an open platform for healthy political discourse. Our Community Guidelines do not allow misleading claims about voting, nor do they allow any content that encourages interference in the democratic process. In addition, we have established policies prohibiting hate speech, harassment, deceptive practices and incitement to violence. For example, under our violent or graphic content policy, we remove content inciting others to commit violent acts against individuals, or a group of persons, at voting locations. Under our voter suppression policy, we remove content falsely claiming mail-in ballots have been manipulated to change the results of an election. We consistently enforce our policies regardless of political viewpoints, or whoever may express those viewpoints. Any content that provides sufficient educational, documentary, scientific, or artistic context is allowed on YouTube. 

The removal of violative content is just one of the ways we protect the YouTube community. Fast-moving events, like elections, may produce unverified claims, which can then lead to uncertainty. Providing viewers with accurate information is critical in moments like this, which is why we work to raise up authoritative election-related information and reduce the spread of harmful election-related misinformation. 

To help you learn more about participating in the democratic process, we’ll continue to promote links to timely, relevant information. Prior to Election Day, Canadians will be able to watch live streams of the official federal leaders’ debates on YouTube. On Election Day, you’ll be able to find a link on the YouTube and Google.ca homepages directing you to information from Elections Canada on how and where to vote. Then, as polls close, on YouTube you’ll see a selection of live streams of election night coverage from authoritative news partners so that, as in previous elections, you can come to YouTube throughout the evening to watch Election Night unfold. 

And we’ll continue to elevate authoritative sources, including news publishers like Global News and Radio-Canada, for election-related news and information queries, in Google Search results and YouTube’s Breaking News and Top News shelves. And our recommendations systems will also continue limiting the spread of harmful election-related misinformation and borderline content.

Per Google’s existing policy, we will not accept election advertising on our platforms during a federal election period regulated by the Canada Elections Act. We first implemented this policy following the changes put in place by Bill C-76 for the 2019 election. 

Our teams will be working around the clock, to make sure we have the systems and policies in place to prevent any abuse of our systems, and to provide consistent access to authoritative information this election season. We remain vigilant and are committed to maintaining the important balance of openness and responsibility, on Election Day, and beyond. 

See you at the polls, Canada!

Source: Official Google Canada Blog