Every social media company wanted to be like the popular new kid on the block, the shortform video app TikTok. Even Facebook tried it with Lasso and failed. So, when YouTube announced it would be launching a shortform video platform, YouTube Shorts, there was some healthy skepticism.
However, it seems like YouTube Shorts is a pretty big success. On Wednesday, YouTube announced that YouTube Shorts are being watched by more than 1.5 billion logged-in users every month from around the world.
In a statement provided to Mashable, YouTube shared that these stats are specifically from YouTube's Shorts player, which means even more users are watching YouTube shortform content on their favorite creators' channel pages as well.
For comparison, TikTok, which has become synonymous with shortform video and serves as the, well…inspiration for YouTube Shorts, announced it had reached 1 billion monthly users in September, the last time it has publicly shared such metrics. While TikTok no doubt has a larger user base now, it seems clear YouTube Shorts is quickly becoming its closest competitor.
"Shorts has really taken off and are now being watched by over 1.5 billion logged-in users every month," YouTube's Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan said in a statement. "While we’re still at the beginning of our journey with Shorts, we know the product will continue to be an integral part of the YouTube experience moving forward."
YouTube Shorts launched in the U.S. in March of last year and rolled out worldwide that following July.
There is an important addendum here. Unlike Facebook, which first launched a completely separate app with Lasso, YouTube built YouTube Shorts directly within its already immensely popular video platform. That built-in user base of billions at the get-go helped YouTube Shorts grow, and grow quickly. However, it doesn't seem like YouTube Shorts are being buoyed by just being part of YouTube anymore. Creators have seemed to find success with it.
"What we’ve seen is that creators are getting really innovative with how they use these multiple formats on the platform," said Mohan.
Some YouTubers like Rosanna Pansino say that their video views have doubled since regularly creating YouTube Shorts, and these shortform videos have now become the biggest source of traffic to her channel.
The YouTube Shorts model seems to work. So much so that Facebook has since launched its own built-in shortform video platform with Facebook Reels, much like how YouTube did with Shorts.
TikTok seems to view YouTube as its number one competitor as well. While YouTube Shorts seem to have figured out how to do shortform video, TIkTok has been looking to go head-to-head on the longform front when it launched longer video uploads earlier this year. It'll be interesting to see TikTok's latest numbers and how they stack up to what YouTube has been able to do.
Mashable reached out to TikTok and will update this post when we hear back.
