YouTube Shorts is the Internet giant’s bid to compete with the sustained success of TikTok, the latest great phenomenon of social networks, a mini-video platform that is triumphing worldwide and which is taking some of the limelight away from the Mountain View service, especially among the younger audience.
Thus, Google announced in the middle of last year YouTube Shorts, a sort of TikTok within YouTube itself, which would be characterized by being limited to a maximum duration of one minute for each video, seasoned with music and various effects, as is the Chinese trademark. Everything is optional, of course, but that is the essence.
However, YouTube Shorts was not launched until the end of last year and only in certain territories. Starting with India, one of the countries where TikTok was sweeping until the authorities banned its use for safety reasons a little earlier, in the summer of 2020. Is this a coincidence? It doesn’t seem so. Later, YouTube Shorts also arrived in the United States.
However, YouTube Shorts was still waiting for the rest of the world, but the wait is over: Google has announced that the feature – since it is still a function within the YouTube mobile application – is now being rolled out in all the territories where the platform is present, and for all users of the platform.
And not only that: YouTube Shorts starts with ‘prizes in dollars’ because finding an ideal monetization model is “one of our main priorities”, YouTube says, so they will encourage the 2021-2022 course by putting on the table 100 million dollars to be distributed among the most successful creators, whose comments will be used to improve the service.
The information published on YouTube’s blog also anticipates news for YouTube Shorts in the form of improvements to existing functions, new features -generally details with which they have polished the experience after these months of testing- and the aforementioned interest in monetization… as long as it does not go beyond YouTube’s timorous rules.
