YouTube was initially a service that made user-generated videos available to everyone compared to traditional linear television. YouTube's position in social media has been comparable to television itself. YouTube no longer succeeds with homemade video blog content, but the content must be entertainment and have really high content value. Whether it's brand or influencer-produced content.
YouTube has long sought to favor watch time in its algorithm, which has directed content creators to make long 10-30 minute or even longer content. As YouTube videos have become increasingly longer, TikTok has partially done for online video what YouTube did for TV - bringing user-generated short videos en masse to the social media landscape.
Swedish Erik Grankvist documented a cottage building project for three years and published a 1.5 hour video on the subject. The video has accumulated over 15 million views.
As TikTok grows its user base and commands consumer time, YouTube has been forced to change its own strategy. The world's largest video service YouTube has recently added short videos to its YouTube Shorts feed. The service has received strong momentum. YouTube Shorts' daily view count has quadrupled in a year from 6.5 billion to 30 billion per day. The service is already used monthly by over 1.5 billion logged-in users which makes it competitive compared to TikTok. YouTube also has a more mature user base. For example, in Finland, YouTube is watched more than commercial television by people up to 45 years old.
YouTube Shorts is not just full of TikTok videos, but its popularity is boosted by original content produced on their channels by YouTubers, i.e., YouTube content creators. With an easier publishing format, the amount of UGC (user generated content) content has also increased significantly. Currently, the world's most popular YouTube channels are growing precisely through short videos. YouTube Shorts videos act like entry products to a YouTube channel, from where the audience ends up watching longer content. To encourage creators to produce content, YouTube also starts paying revenue to content creators from Shorts content from the beginning of 2023. This will further increase the interest of content creators who have also gained momentum on TikTok towards YouTube.
The YouTube Shorts algorithm currently enables good organic reach. Quality domestic content is offered quite sparingly, so it is still significantly easier to stand out with quality domestic content. In addition to organic reach, content can be distributed through Google Ads much more precisely than on TikTok, for example, because Google Ads is much more advanced. YouTube also has over 3 million weekly users aged 16+ in Finland, which makes it larger than, for example, Facebook or Instagram. Through YouTube, it is therefore possible to reach a target group with more purchasing power.
YouTube is also an excellent channel due to its search engine functionality. As many as 80% of users search for information from both Google and YouTube as part of their purchasing decisions. Google search also increasingly favors short videos, and YouTube videos also play a significant role in search results. Advertisers thus have the opportunity to create content marketing that serves consumers across many different channels.
