Shorts might kill YouTube: Senior staff expresses concern of long-form videos being ‘cannibalized’

In September 2020, YouTube introduced the early beta version of its then-experimental vertical scrolling short video stream, which was integrated into the platform, called Shorts. Then, in July 2021, it was globally launched. The move was believed to be taken to overcome the pressure created by TikTok, which was eating away user engagement numbers at all major video streaming and social media platforms. Over the last two years, the company has improved Shorts significantly and even added monetization for creators by displaying ads. However, now, some senior staff are worried that Shorts might kill the company’s original business.

According to a report by The Financial Times, some veteran employees have expressed concerns in recent strategy meetings at YouTube that long-form videos, which generate more ad revenue for the company, are “dying out” as the user base is turning towards its short video format.

Shorts, which now has more than 2 billion users, is pulling away its viewers of long video format. The popularity of Shorts, or short video format in general has skyrocketed with the exponential growth of smartphones in the hinterlands of developing countries, the popularity of TikTok, and the inclination of younger users.

Shorts could kill YouTube’s long videos

But even as the engagement still remains within the platform, this is not an ideal scenario for YouTube. The reason is simple. In a single long video, the platform can plug in ads multiple times, increasing ad revenue, however, due to the format of Shorts, it is not possible to replicate the same in the short video streams.

This becomes a long-term concern. YouTube’s ad revenue has seen a bump recently, but in the previous three quarters, it has been on a downward spiral, as per a report by The Verge. The problem has become more complicated as due to the success of Shorts, creators are also uploading fewer long-form videos and are focusing more on uploading short video formats.

The plight of YouTube is both unique and new, and how it tackles the situation — either by inventing new revenue streams for Shorts while letting long videos decline or by incentivizing long-form content — will be a case study for many other video hosting and streaming platforms in the future.