'We’re proud of how quickly YouTube Shorts has become popular in India'

YouTube Shorts, Google's short-video service, recently completed two years in India. The platform has been generating 30 billion views per day with 1.5 billion logged-in users every month globally. To commemorate the second anniversary of Shorts in India, the video streaming giant launched monetisation opportunities for creators. exchange4media caught up with Ajay Vidyasagar, Regional Director-Asia Pacific, YouTube Partnerships, to understand how the short-video phenomenon is fuelling the creator economy in the country.

Edited excerpts:

According to a recent RedSeer report, short-form video content is expected to surpass OTT video in terms of consumption. What is driving the consumption growth of short-form content?

What moves India has the potential to shape the world. Digital video has become a gateway to the world for millions of Indians. In particular, short-form video, which is easy to consume and create, represents an opportunity like no other to be entertained and inspired, to learn and earn, to connect and grow.

We saw the great potential and engagement short-form content has for today’s increasingly mobile viewer. That’s why two years ago, we introduced YouTube Shorts, the first in India, to make it easier to watch and create short-form content on YouTube. Since then we have seen that imaginative, helpful content in less than 60 seconds has been capturing the hearts and minds of viewers across India. Viewers have turned to both new and existing creators across a broad range of topics to seek short-form content that tap into the humour and familiarity of everyday life.

Today, viewers are demanding content across their screens, tastes, and times. Viewers are demanding a new kind of video creator. And, we’re seeing this rise on the platform, and we’re calling this new breed of innovators multiformat creators. These multiformat creators take full advantage of every format, tool, and product at their disposal -- from video formats to analytics. The interplay between VOD, Shorts, and Live mirrors the reality of today’s viewer who watches a video at different times in various places. They need content that suits their active lives, varied interests, and wide-ranging attention spans.

This approach of multiformat creation is yielding real results. For example, with the launch of Shorts, channels uploading both Shorts and long-form are seeing better overall watch time and subscriber growth relative to that only uploading long-form.

YouTube Shorts recently completed two years in India. How has the platform grown in the last two years?

Every month, over 1.5 billion logged-in users worldwide watch YouTube Shorts. That's a huge accomplishment and one we're very proud of. Our creators excel with YouTube Shorts. Even as established verticals such as gaming, comedy, beauty, and cooking continue to thrive on Shorts, short-form content is driven by the imagination of our creators. We’ve seen the rise of new genres including facts and motivation, science and experiments, infotainment, arts and culture among others. Creators and artists are experimenting with new formats - from Badshah promoting his track with #JugnuChallenge, to Neeraj Chopra seeking to inspire a new generation of viewers to go after their dreams with #JAvRun.

YouTube has always been a place where any and every community can come together to connect and celebrate. YouTube Shorts is no different - from niche, hyperlocal communities to those united by shared passions and interests. Shorts is giving enthusiast fans an opportunity to connect meaningfully with the things they love – and with each other.

Shorts is also transforming the way we learn. While YouTube empowers one of the largest learner communities, many creators have taken to Shorts to distill techniques, information, and reviews into easy, quick, and actionable tips. From academic subjects like science (Don't Memorise), English language skills (Learn English with Let's Talk, English Connection) to film editing (AniThing), arts and crafts (Magic Folds, artist Shikha Sharma), DIY (Mad Stuff with Rob) to Microsoft tools (Gyan On Tube) and even, Farming (Indian Farmer) and Sports (cricket coaching and Javelin).

We are just at the beginning of this new era, and while formats may be changing, our commitment to creators and their ability to thrive remains unwavering.

What is your monetisation strategy for YouTube Shorts?

We’ve always believed in sharing our success with creators. That’s why we launched the YouTube Partner Program (YPP) all the way back in 2007. That meant that creators could, for the first time, share in the revenue and earn money from their content. Today, there are 8 different ways to monetise on YouTube.  And, over the last three years, we have paid more than $50 billion to creators, artists, and media companies.

Starting in early 2023, Shorts-focused creators can apply to YPP by meeting a threshold of 1,000 subscribers and 10M Shorts views over 90 days. These new partners will enjoy all the benefits YPP offers, including ads monetization across Shorts and long-form YouTube videos. This is another option to the existing criteria where long-form creators can still apply to YPP when they reach 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours. Creators can choose the one option that best fits their channel while YouTube maintains the same level of brand safety for advertisers. To support creators who are early in their YouTube journey, YouTube will also introduce a new level of YPP with lower requirements that will offer earlier access to Fan Funding features like Super Thanks, Super Chat, Super Stickers, and Channel Memberships.

YouTube only succeeds when our creators do, and that is now true for Shorts creators. And, we’ve introduced a first-of-its-kind revenue-sharing model for Shorts: With 30B+ daily views and 1.5B+ monthly logged-in users the world over, Shorts are exploding around the world. To reward this new creative class, beginning in early 2023, we’ll be moving away from a fixed fund and doubling down on a unique revenue-sharing model for Shorts for both current and future YPP creators. Because ads run between videos in the Shorts Feed, every month, revenue from these ads will be added together and used to reward Shorts creators and help cover the costs of music licensing. From the overall amount allocated to creators, they will keep 45% of the revenue, distributed based on their share of total Shorts views. The revenue share remains the same, no matter if they use music or not.

How big is the monetisation opportunity for short-video platforms considering the rapid growth in the overall user base?

The internet has opened the door for people to participate as creative entrepreneurs, and YouTube is at the heart of that trend. We launched the YouTube Partner Program (YPP), a first-of-its-kind open monetization program where we share the majority of revenue with creators, over 14 years ago, and today more than 2M creators participate in YPP globally.

As the early adopters of video creation on YouTube saw success in India, it has inspired a whole generation of content creators to express themselves, pursue their passion and drive growth in the overall ecosystem. It is heartening to see that, today, we have creators representing various geographies, even India’s hinterlands, genres, and genders flourish on our platforms. Today, the creator economy is booming. In fact, an analysis by Oxford Economics shows that the YouTube community generates considerable economic value in India, having contributed INR 6,800 Cr (68B) to the Indian economy in 2020 and generated 683K full-time equivalent jobs.

We’re excited to see that more creators are making a living on YouTube than ever before, building a completely new global economy that’s seen incredible growth.

How are brands engaging with short-form video users?

YouTube has enabled so many different formats to co-exist and speak to one another: long-form videos, snappy Shorts, live streams, and deep-dive podcasts. Advertisers can, therefore, choose to talk to their target audiences- in as many forms of stories, across as many devices, as many languages & as many times a day - effectively & at scale.

YouTube Shorts is generating 30 billion views per day globally. India was the first country where we launched Shorts and we’re proud of how quickly YouTube Shorts has become popular in India. And brands are starting to see results too. Take for instance: Oreo, which started its very first Shorts Challenge in Tamil Nadu with 10 of our Top creators in the market to launch Oreo Double Stuf during Pongal last year. With a whopping 8M views on their content, the brand was able to build salience in the market, improving branded searches and household penetration in a key market for them.