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TikTok’s impact on the social media world is undeniable and it’s been amazing watching it forge trends in media consumption. So much so that other social media giants such as Facebook and YouTube are desperately trying to mimic their platforms and adjust to audiences in love with shorter videos.
Just a while ago, in September last year to be exact, TikTok bragged about having around a billion monthly users. Not even a year later, YouTube Shorts surpassed TikTok by having 1.5 billion monthly users.
Why is that big news? Because YouTube’s global base of monthly users is around 2 billion. That means that three-quarters of monthly users actually engage with YouTube Shorts, the short video format YouTube launched two years ago to compete with TikTok. Talk about flexing!
YouTube says that channels that publish long-form videos, as well as Shorts (which are capped at 60 seconds), have higher watch time and subscriber growth than those who only upload long-form videos.
“While we’re still at the beginning of our journey with Shorts, we know the product will continue to be an integral part of the YouTube experience moving forward,” said Neal Mohan, YouTube’s chief product officer.
The Rise Of Shorts
The rise of YouTube Shorts usage has created a new class of “multiformat creators,” that use both short-form and long-form video, and live streams for maximum audience reach. Also, creators are using Shorts to advertise their longer videos by separating segments of them into short-form videos. YouTube has made this easier by providing tools for creating Shorts, including clipping.
Of course, all of this didn’t just come out of nowhere.
YouTube has put a lot of resources into Shorts over the last two years, and even though creators don’t get any ad revenue, they do earn money. The platform has a $100 million “Shorts Fund” which is used to pay creators and expand the feature worldwide. In August last year, YouTube began paying creators for viral short videos up to $10,000 per month.
YouTube Shorts are clearly going to be a big part of the platform going forward, and users seem to be fully on board.
YouTube just announced Shorts are being viewed by over 1.5 BILLION logged-in users each month 📈 That’s incredible 👏🏽👏🏽 pic.twitter.com/96O3e615pP — Muaaz (@mws) June 15, 2022
