YouTube Shorts, the company’s short answer to TikTok, launches in beta in the United States starting today. The short video format has been available in India for several months now, but it is today its debut state (along with the addition of several new features).
For the beta launch, YouTube Shorts contains all the basics of any TikTok clone: a multi-segment camera that makes it easy for makers to quickly tie tracks together, a wide variety of music tracks (with catalogs of more than 250 labels and publishers ) ‘), And a robust captioning tool, the latter of which begins with the US launch. “We really want to create a playground of creativity here where our creators provide the raw materials to produce amazing videos,” says Todd Sherman, YouTube’s product leader for Shorts.
Like TikTok, users will be able to swing through an endless, algorithmically generated feed of short videos, subscribe to their favorite creators, explore specific hashtags or sounds, and remix the soundtracks of other videos. Even the interface looks similar to TikTok’s player.
But instead of getting its own app, Shorts will be living on a new carousel on the homepage of the mobile YouTube app. (The company is also experimenting with a dedicated Shorts tab.)
And while Shorts checks a lot of the basics, it lacks many features that make TikTok such a unique viral hit. There are virtually no collaboration features available in Shorts at launch, so users will not be able to reply to other videos or participate in a version of TikTok’s popular duet or stitch features. It also lacks a way to see a more composite feed. For now, Shorts only offers its main, algorithmic input (similar to TikTok’s “For You” page), without the option to view only videos from accounts you’ve subscribed to.
Sherman says the company sees shorts as a new way for next-generation content creators. YouTube itself is filled with a hyper-competitive landscape of established creators who specialize in making videos that usually last 10 minutes or longer. Shorts offer creators a chance to break the mold, just as YouTube originally offered to Internet creators when it was first launched in 2005.
“I think the real core of Shorts is to enable the next generation of creators, who previously found it even too difficult to even consider creating on YouTube,” Sherman explains. ‘And if we can help fulfill our mission to give them a voice, I think it’s going to make us feel like we’re going to build a YouTube in a way that keeps it relevant for this next generation of creators to a voice on this platform. ”
This is not to say that Shorts will offer nothing to existing creators. To begin with, YouTube will share subscriptions across traditional channels and shorts. So, users who find and subscribe to your content in Shorts to get more out of it will also sign up for long-form videos, and creators with tons of subscribers will already have a built-in audience to whom they can deliver Shorts. In at least one implementation of Shorts that the company is trying, Shorts videos will appear directly on users’ subscriber pages.
According to Sherman, YouTube has some big plans for how it will connect Shorts into the broader YouTube ecosystem – features that can help the young service stand up in a busy field already owned by TikTok and others (less established) competitors are dominated. like Instagram’s Reels or Snapchat’s Spotlight.
And these features are going to be essential: YouTube comes very late to a party already ruled by TikTok, and as Reels and Spotlight have shown, it’s a trivial task to not only TikTok’s seemingly magical mix of algorithmic alchemy, collaboration, not to repeat. tools and viral tendencies. Unfortunately, YouTube Shorts is already catching up, and the unique YouTube features are still very half-baked.
Shorts has some clever ties to traditional YouTube videos: at launch, creators can jump right in to create, for example, a short from music videos for licensed songs. And in the future, the company plans to enable users to remix audio from any YouTube video for use in Shorts, a potential goldmine of content that creators can remix into new memes and videos. (YouTube users can opt out if they choose not to use their audio.)
But shorts only barely scratch the surface. Shorts that use a song track can, for example, link to the music video on YouTube, but there is no easy collection or link to find, for example, a short of a song from the regular video player.
Starting from behind, YouTube is an unparalleled force for online videos, and the fact that creators can seamlessly switch between shorts and long-sleeved videos – while bringing their audiences together – is not something to be underestimated.
‘As our Shorts grow, we can connect the ecosystem to the wider YouTube. And that means if you’re a short-lived creator and become a long-form creator, your audience can grow with you, ‘says Sherman.
Being able to link directly to the original sources of audio content – whether it’s a song, a movie clip or an excerpt from an interview – is also a huge benefit for YouTube, as is the size of the site. .
As Sherman puts it: “One of the foundations that have helped so many people become creators is that when you give high-quality input, you are more likely to achieve high-quality output by mixing other things.” And if you’re looking for videos to import, it’s hard to find a bigger source than Youtube.
But there are still big unanswered questions that YouTube needs to find out about Shorts – among them how creators are going to make money. ‘I think the world expected YouTube to support creators. And I think it will also extend to Shorts, ”says Sherman. “The way we think about it is: television has a different business model than movies, YouTube has a different business model than television, and short-form video will have a different business model than long-running YouTube.”
For now, however, YouTube is not making any announcements about what options to make money on Shorts will look like.
Another big question is what YouTube plans to do to make sure Shorts is no longer a place for farmers chasing content to post popular TikToks and reap the rewards (something Instagram Reels is still struggling with. .) Sherman says that this is something that the Shorts team is investigating, but that they should follow a fine line: YouTube does not want to discourage creators from posting their content on multiple platforms, but also not that people only post videos of others people who just downloaded them from TikTok.
The company says it will take some time before Shorts rolls out, but that it will be available to everyone in the US in the next few weeks.