WHY IS YOUTUBE EXPANDING THE LENGTH OF SHORTS?
Starting October 15th, YouTube will expand the maximum upload time for YouTube Shorts from one to three minutes
YouTube has long been lauded as the king of long-form storytelling among the big three video social media platforms [TikTok, Instagram, & YouTube]. This has been highlighted over the years of the creator platform wars where we saw the big three offer creator funds & other incentives in exchange for posting on their platform, in turn, ultimately attracting the attention of their coveted audiences. Through the unpredictability of these creator funds & incentive programs [ahem, Meta & TikTok], one constant has remained: creators who got their start on almost any social media platform often proceed to pursue long-form video by launching a YouTube channel.
YouTube has remained a king and queen maker in the creator economy. There is a rich, storied history of Viners, TikTokers, and Instagram creators funneling their audiences to their YouTube channels. Per the Influencer Marketing Hub’s Creator Earnings Report, “Although TikTok and Instagram are go-to platforms, creators receive less income through those channels than on YouTube”. Given that YouTube is the highest paying platform for creators and offers ample sponsorship opportunities, it’s no surprise YouTube has remained at the top.
Additionally, according to Neilson, YouTube has repeatedly been the most watched streaming platform on TV, showing no signs of slowing down.
We believe that YouTube has sustained this level of success, growth, and the attention of top creators + their audiences because of their long-form storytelling capabilities. Similarly, we’ve seen TikTok expand its content limits to ten minutes and most recently 60 minutes. Capturing the attention of an audience is at the core of how these platforms monetize themselves and, in turn, incentivize creators. Longer form storytelling is one of the best ways to build an audience. Given YouTube’s historical success of betting on long-form content, it’s logical to see them continue to invest via expanding their Shorts’ program.
In addition to better storytelling with the extra time, this will also allow creators to better integrate brand partnerships in their short-form content. Instead of a 30-60 second dedicated video with all of the content surrounding the brand, creators will now have the ability to more seamlessly integrate sponsors into their everyday content without significantly disrupting it. We predict this will be more appealing to brands with influencer marketing budgets and expect to see more sponsored YouTube Shorts in the coming months. This should only reinforce YouTube’s staying power as a top creator preferred platform: i] by offering more tools for longer-form content to build audiences and ii] by attracting more sponsors for creators to monetize their content.