According to the reports, some YouTube employees are worried that Shorts, the company’s TikTok clone, may kill off its long-form video business, which has been its primary source of income for almost 20 years.
- In 2021, YouTube launched Shorts internationally.
- Even if Shorts are becoming more popular, YouTube makes most of its money from long-format videos.
- In response to the increasing popularity of TikTok and Instagram Reels, YouTube introduced shorts.
After TikTok was banned in India in 2020, YouTube introduced its short-form video section called Shorts. After being made available internationally in 2021, the short video format rose to fame quite rapidly. Although the goal of YouTube’s Shorts debut was to increase revenue and compete with rivals like TikTok and Meta, the feature now appears to be raising questions about the company’s long-form content business.
The Financial Times said that YouTube employees are worried that YouTube Shorts may kill the company’s long-form video core business, which reportedly generates the majority of the company’s revenue. Since the introduction of Shorts, the Alphabet-owned platform has seen an increase in viewers and material. Still, according to the outlet, this increase has also drawn viewers away from its regular long-form content.
Shorts, a platform for short videos, “risks cannibalizing its core business,” according to YouTube employees. The potential that long-form videos, which generate more income for the company, are “dying out” as a genre was also raised in recent YouTube strategy meetings, according to the source.
As the popularity of short-form video content rises, YouTube is in a pickle. Because they are quick and simple to watch, people prefer short-form videos. This is the reason why TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube’s introduction of Shorts have all been so successful. Short-form videos allow for fewer adverts, and YouTube depends on ads for revenue. As a result, YouTube can make less money from short videos than it does from long ones.
YouTube is still attempting to figure out how to increase the money it makes from advertising on Shorts. However, in the meantime, fewer long videos are being uploaded by content producers, which worries YouTube workers. Google is attempting to maintain user engagement with its YouTube audience but must also find a means to generate income.
Since the firm began disclosing its performance separately in 2020, YouTube announced its first-ever quarterly loss in ad revenue in October of last year. The report said the platform showed greater declines in the ensuing two quarters compared to the same intervals in the prior year.
YouTube must recognize Shorts, given their popularity and trend, given the difficulty and worries. It is known on YouTube. YouTube is allegedly “pushing Shorts in front of its billions of users, even at the expense of ad revenue,” according to Joseph Teasdale, head of technology at Enders Analysis. It’s a defense mechanism.
Although the business argues that Shorts are not a replacement for long-form videos, YouTube has acknowledged the concerns raised about the format. According to a source, Shorts were “designed to complement, not compete with, all the other formats creators use” on the platform, including audio and live streams. The business is “pleased with its initial success” and thinks providing many mediums starts “a virtuous cycle that drives new viewers to different formats.”
Regarding the worries that Shorts can end up eating the core business, YouTube needs to concentrate on new aspects that can generate income. The company can achieve this by focusing on products like AI summaries and NFL highlights that can generate cash.
To maintain the goodwill and support of other industries and businesses, Google may also need to make concessions in other areas of its operations. Additionally, YouTube has to invest more in Shorts creators and incentivize them to produce unique material for the website. Shorts will gain more users, and YouTube will make more money.
