In April 2022, Shorts containing content sampled from long-form videos generated over 100bn views.
YouTube Shorts has completed one year in the Middle East & North Africa. Since its global launch in 2020, YouTube Shorts has grown a community of more than 1.5bn monthly logged-in users globally.
The platform is not only designed to engage users but also to help creators and artists produce quick and easy content.
“At the heart of YouTube’s journey are the voices of our creators and artists. When we introduced Shorts, we knew that we were bringing an important new format to the YouTube repertoire. For artists, the path to success has never been more demanding, so we’re designing products like Shorts to make YouTube THE place for them to connect with their fans and grow long-term, sustainable music careers,” said YouTube.
The platform recently introduced new features to elevate Shorts, which includes video remixing that allows creators to use content from YouTube and put their own spin on it using tools such as “cut” and “green screen.” With these tools, creators can use a one- to five-second video segment in their new Short, or a video segment of up to 60 seconds as the background for their new Short, from any eligible video-on-demand (VoD) or Short.
The platform has also enhanced its analytics dashboard, enabling creators and artists to see insights and performance data for specific content across YouTube’s different video formats, which include VoD, Live and Shorts.
The introduction of new formats has led to a new trend on the platform, the company said: “the rise of the multiformat creator and artist”. Rather than specialising in any one type of content format, creators today are moving between different formats to maximise their creativity and revenue.
In fact, channels uploading both Shorts and long-form content are seeing better overall watch time and subscriber growth relative to those only uploading long-form content.
Speaking about the Shorts, Neal Mohan, YouTube’s Chief Product Officer, said: “Shorts have become an essential part of the YouTube experience for our creators and viewers. Now being watched by over 1.5bn logged-in users every month, the product is growing thanks to the creativity of our community. While we’re still at the beginning of our journey with Shorts, we look forward to continuing to innovate the product so our creators can continue to express themselves, connect with their audiences, and increase their reach and revenue opportunities on the platform.”
Tarek Amin, Head of YouTube in MENA, added: “It’s been exciting seeing the different ways YouTube has helped MENA creators to share their stories with the world and Shorts is one of the many ways we hope to continue empowering them. Our team is constantly looking at ways to support the creator ecosystem in the region.”
These multiformat creators and artists are using YouTube to lead the next wave of the creator economy.
TV personality Azza Zarour and video creator Fatoom Dababneh, who have over 3m and 800,000 YouTube subscribers respectively, are adept at leveraging the different formats on the platform.
Zarour used Shorts to take her subscribers through her motherhood journey soon after she had a baby. Despite having fewer long-form videos, Shorts allowed Zarour to grow her subscribers by 43%.
“YouTube Shorts really gave me a new avenue of content and helped me grow my channel,” she said.
