Don’t Ignore YouTube Shorts

Apr 23

When a person thinks of short-form video, TikTok will typically come to mind. It’s no secret that TikTok is the leader in the short-form content space.

In an article for Tagembed, Wagisha Adishree calls TikTok the “king of all” amongst “hundreds of video platforms.” TikTok experiences more engagement than Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, according to Adishree.

But the tide can change – and is actually already changing.

TikTok Ban

Recently, Congress passed a bill giving TikTok a provision to either sell the app or be banned from the U.S. entirely. In essence, what has been labeled as a “TikTok ban.” According to an article by Aimee Picchi for CBS News, “TikTok has attracted unwanted scrutiny not only for the addictiveness of its constantly scrolling videos, but also due to its Chinese owner, ByteDance. That has raised concerns among lawmakers and security experts that the Chinese government could tap TikTok's trove of personal data about millions of U.S. users.” The bill has been signed into law by President Biden.

With the existence of TikTok in the air, another platform may soon have to take over the short-form video content throne. And if the platform leaves, so will the users. Gary Vaynerchuk reflected on the possibility of a TikTok ban back in 2020, writing, “Where do you think all that attention goes, if TikTok actually gets shut down? It goes to all the other places. Those eyeballs, those minutes, those hours they go to TV, or they go to audio and podcasts, or they go to Instagram Reels or Dubsmash or Triller. The attention always goes somewhere else.”

Where Will the Attention Go?

YouTube Shorts is one of the other players in the short-form space. Joe Fedewa, in an article for How-To Geek, argues that YouTube Shorts could potentially take the top spot. “YouTube is obviously a mega-popular platform in its own right,” writes Fedewa. “If TikTok truly gets banned from the US, YouTube Shorts could easily step in and be a sufficient replacement.”

YouTube has been in the video business for a long time – in 2005, to be exact. This lumps the platform with other notable social media sites that were first starting around that time. According to Alexandra Samur and Collen Christison for Hootsuite, other sites that launched around YouTube’s birth include Facebook, LinkedIn, and Reddit.

Where the Money Is…

The video sharing platform is credited for beginning the concept of social media influencers as we know it today. “In May 2007, YouTube introduced its partnership program,” write Samur and Christison. “This moment essentially marked the beginning of social media influencers.”

In 2020, YouTube expanded monetization to Shorts, where “creators will earn 45% of ad revenue from their videos” according to Amanda Silberling for TechCrunch. Days prior to the official announcement, Silberling argued that YouTube Shorts could overtake TikTok due to their monetization efforts, citing the difficulties of getting paid on TikTok. “TikTok’s Creator Fund model simply doesn’t work,” she wrote, because the fund doesn’t get larger even as it’s divided amongst creators.

According to Nicholas Bouchard for The Leap, TikTok shut down the Creator Fund in 2023, replacing it with other programs such as TikTok Pulse and Creativity Program, “in an effort to address” the problems from their previous monetization programs.

To Karoline Wilde at teach:able, YouTube has the clear advantage in the monetization game. “One advantage that YouTube Shorts have over TikTok is the monetization options” she writes. “YouTube makes earning money much more lucrative.”

The Next Leader?

YouTube could very well take over TikTok’s position, should the app be banned from the U.S. The platform has not only been in the video business since the dawn of social media, but has also been a leader in monetization and user attention. If YouTube keeps up the innovation and perfects the Shorts model to be engaging to users, it very well may be where we’ll be scrolling next.