YouTube Shorts was created for YouTube to gain space in the format of short videos, a concept popularized by TikTok and also a hit on Instagram’s Reels. However, the “spell seems to have turned against the sorcerer”: Google is concerned about Shorts competing against long videos, YouTube’s main source of revenue.
To further explain the situation, Shorts is — in fact — one of the culprits of this concern. Consumer interest in “fast” video formats is growing, taking space away from long videos. And because YouTube depends on creators and creators depend on views, they’re focusing productions on the smaller videos.
Short videos don’t match YouTube revenue
What I’m going to write in this paragraph is pretty obvious (sorry): long videos, the “standard” format on YouTube, are the best way for Google to generate revenue. Typically, you open a video and get two ads, one more in the middle of the video and two more at the end. Five advertisers paid for it, Google profited and statistics show that clicks are high — no wonder the company is in a battle to end ad blockers.
Doing this in a 10-minute video (of which it’s likely that 2 minutes will be a sponsor of the creator and him asking for likes and your entry) is easy. The business is to take that profit to a video that should last, at most, 60 seconds — although shorts of up to 45 seconds are more efficient.
Taking into account the example of the five ads in a long video, even if they all allow to be skipped, you have 25 seconds of advertising when all you want is to see a 60-second video — at most. It’s obviously unfeasible for YouTube to just “copy and paste” its ad format into Shorts.
In the latest financial result, Google posted a drop in ad revenues. Now the company struggling to deal with these problems: consumer interest in short videos, their creators investing in the format and how to profit from it.
It would be funny to imagine YouTube shutting down Shorts. But it’s more likely to continue investing in strategies to force consumers to subscribe to YouTube Premium — perhaps filling it with ads as you “scroll” through the Shorts, just like TikTok does.