- Here's a question from the vidIQ community,
"Can you make an updated video on YouTube Shorts?"
Absolutely.
You're too late.
That ship has already sailed.
(horn blares)
(upbeat music)
Can you believe it?
It's been almost a year
since I made my very first video about YouTube Shorts
before it even had a name,
before anybody knew how to really create one.
So from where it was then
to where it is now is quite remarkable.
Having now been rolled out globally,
everyone should now have access to the Shorts camera tool.
And there are estimated to be over four million channels
making nearly 50 million YouTube Shorts on a regular basis.
And to be honest,
this number likely only reflects the tip of the iceberg.
(horn blares)
(thud rumbles)
And that's because just six months into the beta,
YouTube were already claiming that 6 1/2 billion shorts
were being viewed every single day.
And that was before YouTube started messing around
with the YU and put a Shorts button on the front page.
The results of all this now means, according to Tubefilter,
that YouTube Shorts bring in more
than 15 billion views per day.
Now, I'm finding this figure pretty difficult to comprehend
since the population of the entire world
is still a shade under eight billion.
So this is the equivalent of every single person
on the planet (bell dings)
watching two YouTube shorts every single day.
But if this number is true
and we extrapolate it over the course of a year,
that is 5 1/2 trillion views.
I mean, this is all utterly bonkers, isn't it?
I'm still trying to visualize how this is even possible.
All of which brings us back to monetization
for YouTube Shorts Fund and that promised $100 million.
If you share that cash amongst the 5 1/2 trillion views,
well, that's how much you'll be earning.
Good luck.
Yeah, it doesn't look as if that $100 million
is gonna go very far, does it?
And it seem particularly stingy
given how much YouTube have been making recently.
That's because the Tubefilter article goes on to say
that YouTube raked in $7 billion
in the second quarter of 2021,
a $1 billion increase on the first quarter
and a whopping 84% increase on the same period last year.
And don't forget,
this is all before YouTube start to run ads
on some of those 15 billion daily YouTube Shorts views.
But in the meantime,
where has that $100 million Shorts Creator Fund gone?
Apparently nowhere.
Since the Creator Fund is not connected
to the YouTube Partner Program,
the understanding is YouTube will reach out
to thousands of Shorts creators every single month
in, I guess, a private invite monetization program.
And you would assume that Jake Fellman,
a channel with six million subscribers
and over five billion YouTube Shorts views,
might be at the top of this invite list.
Well, apparently not,
because nearly three months after the announcement,
he hasn't heard diddly squat.
(whistles) Five billion views
and no real way to make any money off of it.
Talk about a starving artist.
That's your comment code word. Justice for Jake.
But hey, maybe we should cut YouTube a little bit of slack,
because, remember, 12 months ago,
YouTube Shorts didn't even exist.
15 billion daily views later,
they're on the cusp of monetizing this platform,
which I think is pretty incredible.
Now, moving away from the whole global rollout
and monetization of YouTube Shorts,
the Creator Insider YouTube team
did publish a video recently
that touched on one or two interesting Shorts points.
While TikTok recently introduced longer videos
of up to three minutes,
YouTube currently has no plans to follow suit,
sticking with 60 seconds as the maximum length.
There are also currently no plans
to allow creators to customize their thumbnails,
which I'm sure will continue to frustrate many.
And despite the fact
that they're very, very similar in nature,
YouTube Stories will continue to be a thing
for creators who have access to it.
And finally, while they didn't outright admit
that TikTok style features such as stitching and dueting,
stickers, filters, and gestures are on the way,
they did talk about an exciting roadmap
of products to look forward to.
But hang on, hang on,
does any of this actually matter considering
what I said at the beginning of this video
about it being too late to make YouTube Shorts?
You just want to see about ships sailing
to something else, don't you?
Done! (horn blares)
From the moment we made our very first video
about YouTube Shorts almost a year ago,
more and more people are watching them,
and more and more creators are making them.
And because of this, the competition increases,
and the quality of YouTube Shorts
gets better every single day.
It's unavoidable.
Let me put it to you like this.
Maybe a year ago, you had a 1 in 100 shot
of making successful YouTube Shorts content,
but now maybe the odds are more likely 1 in 10,000.
But here's the thing.
Remember this, you are still that one.
You still gotta take that shot.
Because I guarantee you this, someone will take that shot,
and someone will hit the bullseye.
There is someone today
who is starting their YouTube Shorts journey,
and by the end of 2021,
they will have 100,000 subscribers guaranteed.
There's probably a dozen people who are gonna do that today.
Is it too late to start making YouTube Shorts?
It's now the same question as is it too late
to start a YouTube channel?
Well, it's only ever too late
if you keep saying to yourself you'll start tomorrow.
You've just seen the same figures as me.
Over the same period of time, year over year,
YouTube have increased their revenue by 84%.
They've almost doubled the creator economy.
If that doesn't convince you,
then why on Earth did you just watch the whole
of this video?
(color bars beeping)
(horn blares)