In 2019-2020 TikTok became one of the most popular video content platforms, where people have been uploading short-form video content under certain types of music. More and more users started gaining interest in the app and finally, the boom of TikTok happened. Billions of people over the globe started using this application and uploading thousands of videos every hour. As Tik Tok started gaining more and more fame, some countries started reporting that people, especially kids and teenagers began to get addicted to this social platform and Tik Tok trends. These countries considered such trends dangerous and expressed concerns that this would negatively affect human development, so different governments began to gradually ban this application. With the fall of TikTok, YouTube saw an opportunity and decided to transport all TikTok fans, who were left without their favorite app, to YouTube.
For this, YouTube created a special type of video-content – YouTube Shorts.
Of course, the main types of videos, lives, and posts that were being uploaded are still dominating the platform, so YouTube needed to attribute certain characteristics to videos, for them to be considered to be YouTube Shorts. Here are some requirements for a video to be considered a Short: It must be in a vertical format, meaning that it cannot be shot or edited in landscape mode. Its duration must be equal to or less than 60 seconds. Furthermore, in order for the vertical video that is less than 60 seconds to be considered a YouTube Short, it must include #Shorts in its title or description.
YouTube is still in the process of developing this feature and interface. Currently, they appear on a specific “shelf” among the scrolling feed, dedicated to only YouTube Shorts. As far as the monetization of YouTube Shorts is concerned, currently, there is no way of placing ads on them and generating any revenue, unless the video is viewed from the YouTube home page, and not from the YouTube Shorts shelf.
However, if there is no way to monetize such types of videos, then what benefits and advantages does it give to the creators? Currently, very few creators know and test this feature. It can be said that it is not even official yet. Since only a small number of people are creating them, the competition is considerably lower. This means that YouTube Shorts have higher chances of generating more views and subscribers for the channels than normal videos. For example, there are only 6 100 000 YouTube Shorts currently uploaded to YouTube and only 863 000 channels uploading such content. All this is compared to 5 000 000 000 normal videos watched each day and 37 000 000 channels uploading normal video content. The ratio of these numbers is HUGE! This gives every YouTube Short channel the opportunity to grow approximately 36 times faster than any other channel, and every single YouTube Short, the chance of getting 1 550 000 times more views than normal YouTube videos.
However these numbers are not always exact, and to test this out I conducted my own study. I uploaded two identical videos about one and the same topic, but one of them was YouTube Short, and another was a normal video. YouTube Short, in its first 24 hours got 362 views, while normal video during the same time period got only 18 views. As another example, I want to mention the YouTube channel “Jake Fellman”. This creator was making all sorts of videos before YouTube Shorts appeared, but as soon as he found out about them, he began making YouTube Short Among Us animations and his channel blew up! His most popular YouTube Short, uploaded just 3 months ago has 134 000 000 views, while his most popular normal video, uploaded 8 months ago has only 39 000 views, which means that YouTube Short on average per month is generating him 44 666 666 views, while normal video on monthly average 4875 views! This comparison indicates that YouTube Shorts have the potential to gain almost 1000 times more views than normal videos! And these are just two comparisons, and other channels may be making millions of times more views with shorts than general videos! All that is known for sure, is that a new era of short-form video content is coming to YouTube, and it’s about to change everything!
Edited by Lika Gegenava
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