As TikTok has taken over the internet, YouTube Shorts has more than 1.5 billion users. YouTube Shorts has become a focus for the platform in growing its user base.
YouTube says this week that YouTube Shorts has amassed 1.5 billion users who are active monthly. Those are users who log in when watching the short form and make up 75% of YouTube’s user base of 2 billion.
Of course, this has not happened by accident.
YouTube has invested a lot of resources in the creation of Shorts in the last two years, which has generated a large number of views.
Last year, a $100 million “Shorts Fund” was opened to pay creators for viral videos, also expanding shorts around the world. YouTube also launched an ad campaign for Shorts directly on competing platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels.
More recently, YouTube has expanded Shorts to tablets and the web. Google Discover, a content recommendation platform, has also started highlighting Shorts for users.
But this also comes in handy, as YouTube Shorts is monetizing its large number of users. In April, the platform announced that ads would start appearing between Shorts, and in recent weeks we’ve seen those ads appear more frequently.
More YouTube creators have been using Shorts to add supplemental content or advertise their longer videos by breaking out snippets of that content for short videos. YouTube has made it easier, with clips and other tools to create shorts.
It’s clear at this point that YouTube Shorts is a big part of the platform’s future, and users seem to be totally on board with that future.
