YouTube wants to capitalize on the popularity of Shorts by promoting longer video clips in the Shorts feed.
This seems to contradict the whole concept, but considering that Shorts generate 70 billion views a day, it’s entirely understandable that YouTube would want to use this as a means of maximizing viewership for all content types whenever possible.
Which is an “if”.
As explained on YouTube:
“To help viewers better discover content on YouTube across different channels, formats, and lengths, we’re running some small experiments on the watch page and with Shorts. If you as a viewer participate in the experiment, these new discovery experiences could include a mix of video formats, including long-form videos where you’d normally see Shorts (example: the Shorts feed), or new feeds with long-form videos.”
So it seems that YouTube is trying to capitalize on the popularity of Shorts to encourage broader video advertising. However, it’s not entirely clear how horizontally formatted long-form clips fit into the vertically oriented Shorts feed.
I assume YouTube has considered and taken this into account, but it might be a strange experience if this stream shows videos that aren’t designed for Shorts.
As mentioned, Shorts has been a huge success for YouTube and has led to a significant increase in engagement as people become more accustomed to smaller, bite-sized video clips. With that in mind, it makes sense for YouTube to further align its recommendations with the format to increase overall viewership. It will be interesting to see exactly how this is implemented and how users respond to it.
YouTube also notes that creators may see their long-form video clips displayed in the Shorts feed counted as Shorts in YouTube Analytics.
This could also be confusing, and from the user and creator’s perspective, the whole concept actually seems a bit strange.
But YouTube clearly has a plan, and it could well help boost advertising for longer clips.
And it could also ultimately lead to more YouTube viewing in full-screen and vertical orientation. I expect this test is heading in that direction, and it will be interesting to see how these display experiments work in practice.
