YouTube has more than 2 billion users actively on their accounts every month. The video platform hopes that its new YouTube Shorts feature, still in beta mode, will bring more opportunity to cater to artists and creators....while still bringing in the big views.
With the Shorts new feature, you can make videos that are 15 seconds or less and edit the clips with various tools—one of which is stitching a series of short clips. YouTube Shorts also offers users to use music in these videos from what is available in YouTube’s library. Sound familiar?
*ahem*
YouTube Shorts capitalizes on insights behind why short-form content is so popular right now.
They are helpful under one-minute easy tutorials, they are funny, help people unwind, relax, and pass the time in the free time people get during commutes and work breaks.
With the rollout of YouTube Shorts beta, US advertisers and businesses are playing a bit of a waiting game. Is this yet another platform feature we should be adopting, or will it go the way of Vine?
YouTube was smart enough to launch its new feature in a country where TikTok was banned: India. It is clear that the platform has jumped the bandwagon of short video content featured in TikTok and adopted by Instagram as Reels.
Where marketers create their digital content strategy based on the influx of viewership on TikTok, Instagram may seem like a more obvious platform to sub for TikTok strategy. However, TikTok has 700 million active users, while Instagram has 1 billion active users.
In contrast, YouTube has 2 billion active users, more than the two platforms combined.
On top of this, there is no way yet for content creators to earn money directly from Reels or TikTok. YouTube has a prolific monetization model, making it a very appealing option out of the three for content creators and artists.
Marketers, on the other hand, are more likely to view Shorts based on their potential to reach more audiences. In YouTube Shorts beta, videos will be discoverable on the YouTube homepage, a very desirable draw to be an early adopter.
YouTube has been clear in communicating that it is still updating and developing what they have envisioned for the final YouTube shorts feature. It’s too soon to make a final judgment on it. All we can do is wait and see how it really pans out.
Us marketers are used to playing the waiting game based on the whims of social platforms, aren’t we?