More than 1.5 billion users watch YouTube Shorts every month and short films on the video platform. Google’s platform is thus on the same level as its great rival TikTok.
YouTube began testing its ‘Shorts’ in September 2020, intending to roll them out widely in July 2021. The videos are no more than 60 seconds long. According to technology news website The Verge, the shorts became more popular during that time, and YouTube added additional features similar to TikTok’s, such as sampling.
According to Google, the shorts were viewed 30 billion times a day in April. Another reason why more and more people are making shorts is that YouTube recently added advertising to the short videos, which also allows the creators to get paid. YouTube recently released $100 million for it, with which the makers can earn up to $10,000 per month.
TikTok, which had some 2 billion visitors in April, has only recently started monetizing videos, and creators can earn much less on TikTok than on YouTube. The latter platform generated $8.6 billion in advertising revenue in 2021. YouTube’s shorts complete YouTube’s offering, which “wants to offer different formats on its platform,” Neal Mohan, YouTube product manager, said in a press release published Wednesday.
TikTok is also diversifying its offer by increasing the maximum video duration, initially from 1 to 3 minutes, now videos can be 10 minutes long. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has also fallen short. Since August 2020, videos of at least 15 seconds can be published on Instagram Reels. And on Snapchat, videos of up to 60 seconds are allowed.
