The monthly viewership of ‘Shorts’, a video service within 60 seconds introduced by Google YouTube, has exceeded 1.5 billion. This number exceeds the number of monthly users (1 billion) announced by TikTok in September last year, and it is evaluated that YouTube’s strategy to imitate TikTok has paid off to some extent.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 15th (local time) that Alphabet (Google’s parent company) had risen to a size similar to that of its rival service TikTok in less than two years after its launch. This is the first time YouTube has released monthly viewer numbers for Shorts.
TikTok announced in September of last year that it had 1 billion monthly users. The WSJ reported that the industry predicts that the number of monthly viewers of TikTok will reach about 1.6 billion as of the end of March this year, and that YouTube Shorts and TikTok have secured a similar number of viewers.
YouTube introduced Shorts, a short video service of 60 seconds or less, for the first time in India at the end of 2020 as TikTok, a short video of less than 15 seconds, became popular among the 1020 generation. Since last year, we have been servicing shorts all over the world, including the United States.
Some point out that it is not appropriate to simply compare the number of YouTube Shorts viewers and TikTok users because the counting standards are different. YouTube shorts viewers included those who watched the shorts video at least once among YouTube users. As of the end of last year, the number of monthly YouTube viewers exceeded 2 billion.
Google plans to increase its investment in shorts. “Shorts are YouTube’s ‘defense products’ to prevent YouTube creators from putting more energy into TikTok,” said Mark Schmulik, an internet analyst at Bernstein, a US market analyst firm. There is no,” he said.
