YouTube Shorts Attracts a Monthly Audience of Over 1.5 Billion

The response to the success of TikTok by YouTube does better than many of us expected. YouTube Shorts, a service that delivers short videos in vertical format (like TikTok does), has reached an impressive mark. Now each month, it attracts an audience of 1,5 billion users, which is a great result for the service that had to catch up with the leader.

This number is a solid competition to that of TikTok, showing that YouTube is not so tightly caught in its old-fashioned landscape video format optimized for PC and TV. It took YouTube Shorts less than two years to reach this number of views. Now YouTube views Shorts as the primary driver of progress and growth. According to Neil Mohan, the chief product officer, YouTube Shorts will continue growing for a long, becoming an integral part of the overall YouTube experience.

The primary concern here is the attitude of the creators, and Google does a lot to keep them motivated. Last year, it created a $100M fund to support creators who make the most-watched videos, and this initiative isn’t likely to stop there. Creators, though, find more ways to make money (because Google has taken care of monetization options), earning billions of dollars in 2021 only and going on like that. Those who feel too limited by Shorts format for certain projects can easily use the facilities of the traditional YouTube formats, which enables them to express themselves with longer forms.

Short-form videos have become a trend. After the overwhelming success of TikTok, both Meta and Alphabet, two of the most influential companies in today’s social media, added short videos to their projects. So now, there are at least two powerful rivals to TikTok: YouTube Shorts and Facebook/Instagram Reels.

How many videos have you watched on YouTube Shorts recently? How much time do you spend on them? Do you think YouTube Shorts is more convenient for watchers or creators than TikTok or Reels? Let us know what you think in the comments!