The executive director of Youtube, Susan Wojcicki, has assured that they are “laying the foundations for the future of YouTube”, and that they do so with a focus on innovation around areas such as short videos, video games or the creators, in which they are going to invest this year.
The ‘shorts’, the platform’s short videos in vertical format, have already reached 5 billion views. Last year, the possibility of creating them using audio from other YouTube videos was introduced, a function that will be expanded in the coming months with more ways to mix content on the platform.
The ‘Shorts Fund’, which allows creators to earn money from these short videos, is now available in more than a hundred countries, and throughout the year the company will test “new ways” to create content for brands through the ‘BrandConnect’ program ‘.
When it comes to video games, during the first half of 2021 alone, YouTube recorded more than 800 billion views, more than 90 million hours of live transmissions, and more than 250 million downloads related to this type of content.
In this section, YouTube ensures that it will improve live experiences for all creators and users, especially about the visibility of live content and chat functions. They will also launch Gift Memberships this year and will facilitate the creation of ‘shorts’ related to video games.
The company also wants YouTube to be part of “the next generation of commerce.” To this end, they have started a label pilot program that allows users to browse, find out about and buy the products in the videos, and have carried out the first tests to integrate the shopping experience in ‘shorts’.
Live shopping, which was trialed last year in the US, South Korea, and Brazil, will reach more creators and brands this year through partnerships with commerce platforms like Shopify.
The directive has also highlighted YouTube’s role in learning, as a platform where people come to “do their homework, explore new interests or develop skills”. Last year, they launched the Mi Aula channels in Mexico and Argentina in association with UNESCO, offering content that complements secondary education curricula. Later this year, they will be extended to students in Brazil through the YouTube EDU channel.
CREATOR ECOSYSTEM
“Creators come to our platform to share their lives, earn money and shape the world in meaningful ways,” said Wojcicki, noting the impact they also have on the global economy.
In this sense, he has shared that worldwide, the number of channels that earn more than 10 thousand dollars a year has had a year-on-year increase of 40% and that in 2020, the creative ecosystem of YouTube generated more than 800 thousand jobs, according to reports from Oxford Economics. “This exceeds those generated by the United States, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Brazil, Australia, and the EU combined,” he says.
The platform currently offers creators “ten ways” to earn money, with tools like Super Chat and Channel Memberships. Wojcicki has indicated that in the past year, YouTube Channel Memberships and paid digital items were purchased or renewed more than 110 million times.
The company is “looking much further into the future” with a goal than “expanding the YouTube ecosystem” so that creators can take advantage of emerging technologies like NFTs, and is inspired by Web3.0 to “continue to innovate.”
They are also working on new features that will improve the experience for creators. Pre-publish reviews were launched last year, where you can find out if there are any copyright or ad-suitability issues before content is published. Ad-friendly content guidelines have also been updated
The platform is currently working to take a deeper look at its policies and has hired more people to provide creators with more details about policy violations, such as the timestamps they appear.
Likewise, the directive has indicated that the Demographic data of the creators’ survey is now available in Studio so that creators in the United States can voluntarily share their gender, sexual orientation, race, and ethnicity -this year it will be enabled in other countries-. The company will use this information to ensure that its policies and products “work for everyone.”