YouTube is raising the bar for YouTube Partner Program eligibility, effective February 2027 for new applicants. Channels must now have 1,000+ subscribers AND either 4,000 watch hours in 12 months OR 20M+ Shorts views in 90 days. This stricter threshold is designed to increase per-creator payouts and reward successful short-form video creators. Existing members remain grandfathered in. For Thai SME creators, this means a higher barrier to monetization but potentially better ad-revenue splits once qualified; Super Chat and channel memberships are unaffected.