Google’s copycat ‘YouTube Shorts’ nabs 1.5bn monthly users as it tries to keep up with TikTok
YouTube’s TikTok copycat video streaming service is scoring big, with the Google-owned firm announcing that its YouTube Shorts is now being watched by over 1.5 billion logged-in users every month.
While the figures rather pale against TikTok’s one billion monthly users, the short-form video format has gained strong momentum since it was used by the tech giant in 2020.
Just last month, Google announced it would be including ads in Shorts globally, bringing the offering closer to ByteDance owned TikTok by allowing creators to monetise.
Meta owned Instagram have also been building out their own offering with Instagram Reels.
Nonetheless, the key difference between Shorts is that it aims to direct users ultimately towards longer-form videos, whereas TikTok has the fast-paced shorter video baked into its offering.
“Long-form content remains the best way for creators to deeply engage and develop long-term relationships with their audiences. 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,” said YouTube’s Vice President of the Americas, Tara Walpert Levy.
“This approach is yielding results; channels uploading both short and long-form content are seeing better overall watch time and subscriber growth than those uploading only one format.”
Comparing YouTube’s performance to its Chinese rival earlier this year, analysts at Enders Analysis said: “The competitive landscape it [YouTube] is entering with Shorts will depress monetisation for the foreseeable future, and TikTok has proved surprisingly able to move into areas of core YouTube strength, like instructional videos, product reviews, and light entertainment.
“As TikTok pushes into older generations in a way that Snapchat, for example, never did, the competition between the two services will increase”.