YouTube released its “shorts” feature this March and has been running ever since. YouTube Shorts are videos in a 16:9 format (the screen ratio for most mobile devices) and are no more than a minute long. Shorts videos have their own special tab on the YouTube mobile platform in which users are able to browse various short videos by scrolling down. The GUI is very similar to other mobile social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram.
A common question regarding YouTube shorts is why they were released in the first place if YouTube already had a mobile app with the ability to browse videos. There are many reasons for this, but the main reason behind this launch was to give content creators a new way to connect with a wider range of audiences.
Around the end of 2020, the amount of videos under a minute were greatly increasing on the platform due to internet meme culture encouraging shorter, more replayable videos. Although most videos under a minute consisted of memes, this tradition of short videos spread into other categories such as quick sports/esports highlights, short compilations, and brief news/informational updates. YouTube saw this change in video style as a great time to introduce their new shorts feature.
Because of this timing, YouTube shorts became a hit almost instantly. As of now, the variety of videos being posted as YouTube shorts has spread to be much more than mainly memes and is a highly viable option for content creators with some shorts gaining dozens of millions of views.