YouTube Shorts is catching up to TikTok and has quickly become a tough competitor. According to Statista, TikTok grew to 1 billion monthly active users in September 2021.
YouTube’s short-form video content platform YouTube Shorts was launched back in 2018. With YouTube’s ability to tap into their already massive monthly users, pushing Shorts seemed natural after watching TikTok’s growth and strategies.
Content creators who are uploading both short- and long-form content are seeing better watch time and subscriber growth.
“Longform content remains the best way for creators to deeply engage and develop long-term relationships with their audiences,” Tara Walpert Levy, YouTube’s VP of Americas, told Billboard. “But Shorts offer an exciting, new way to be a part of a viewer’s journey and to introduce themselves and their whole portfolio to new audiences. This approach is yielding real results.”
The 1.5 billion monthly viewers figure is from logged-in users who’ve watched at least one YouTube Shorts video in one month, Billboard states.
YouTube recently came out and stated that its Shorts platform is a hit with musicians. However, Lyor Cohen, YouTube’s global head of music, stated that he’s concerned that users may only crave short-form content. This may hinder their experience with an artist’s true image by skipping longer form content.
“I think short-form video could help crowdsource and make it easier for kids to find the soundtrack of their youth, but then you have to be prompted, and it has to lead you [to long-form content], so it’s not empty calories, but it leads you to learning and discovering and becoming a fan,” Cohen told Bloomberg.
