YouTube Shorts have amassed five trillion total views in less than a year and a half

It seems that shorter videos are getting real popular as a means of sharing through social media (and not only on TikTok). Android Central now reports that YouTube Shorts, a rival from Google to TikTok, has now amassed five trillion total views since it was created a year and a half ago.

YouTube Shorts: people are enjoying short-form videos

YouTube's CEO, Susan Wojcicki, has revealed this information in a blog post, indicating creators of Shorts on YouTube have amassed a total of five trillion views. YouTube Shorts was launched around a year and a half ago as a direct competitor to TikTok's ever-rising popularity. These five trillion views include all platforms, such as YouTube Shorts viewed on Android phones and laptops as well.


The fund, by the way, is now available in more than 100 countries. Pretty much, back in August, YouTube announced this fund as a part of the initiative to get content creators on YouTube into making more Shorts. It basically means the company is paying creators between $100 and $10,000 per month based on views and engagement with their Shorts.

It seems like most of the people who really benefit from this fund are small creators on the video platform. More than 40% of creators who had received the payment last year were creators who weren't eligible to be part of the YouTube Partner Program, indicated Wojcicki.

On top of that, YouTube is planning to expand the methods it is using to help creators earn more money for the short videos they make. YouTube will be helping creators make sponsored content by a program called BrandConnect. This program would match the creators with certain brands that are suitable for their type of content.

But that's not all. The platform is also planning to incorporate shopping features into YouTube Shorts. This would happen based on its existing program that allows viewers to browse and shop featured products (those appear alongside videos).

And last but not least, YouTube will be looking to expand its remix feature that allows you to create a Short using audio from YouTube videos. Of course, the audio should be available for anyone to copy and not be copyrighted content. In the future, YouTube plans to also use non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for monetization options for creators, as well as to introduce a gifted membership option.

YouTube Shorts debuted a year and four months ago to meet the demand for short video platforms

The short videos allow people to create catchy content just from their smartphones without using hardcore filmmaking equipment and programs. YouTube Shorts allows you to natively record short clips, splice them together, and upload them to share them with your followers and anyone on YouTube.