YouTube Shorts has garnered good viewership numbers. And the parent company, Alphabet may have plans to cash in on this. So much so that it could impact the viewing experience of millions of users.
According to a report by TechCrunch, the CEO of Alphabet, Sunder Pichai, commented on the fast growth of the service during the quarterly earnings call. The 60-second video content is reportedly getting over1 billion views daily.
The platform has filled in the gap in India after TikTok’s ban. And Google wants to take advantage of that by bringing ads to Shorts. This also comes after the company saw a reduction in revenue from ad sales. Many European countries reduced their advertising spending after Russian forces invaded Ukraine.
The company announced that there was an increase in the number of creators on the platform. It could also potentially allow them to monetize their short-form content as well in the future. Google stated that early testing with advertisers received a positive response and that the results were promising.
YouTube posted quarterly revenue of $6.87 billion which was lower than the forecasted $7.51 billion mark. However, the results were better than in Q1 of last year. The company’s CFO Ruth Porat also mentioned that the revenue generated by creators was able to balance the losses incurred by the company from its Google Play revenue. The company had previously revised the charges for its developer fees from 30% to 15% just like Apple.
Google wants you to subscribe
Ad revenue is key to many businesses that run online. It’s become a part of our Facebook news feeds, Instagram feeds and Twitter timelines. But the largest place for online advertising is YouTube. In a way, it’s easy for companies to reach out to all of the billions of users who are active on the platform. But the negative impact is on users, who would rather enjoy some videos without being interrupted.
It felt like YouTube Shorts would be at least devoid of any ads and we can scroll through content quickly. But even that dream is now short-lived.
This could also be another means for the company to increase its revenue and not be entirely dependent on ads. Maybe. Users are subscribing to their favourite content creators. Some are also supporting them by paying for a monthly subscription to gain exclusive access as well.
If the onslaught of ads continues to reach all services on the platform, users might actually just consider subscribing to YouTube Premium to enjoy all their content ad-free. Just like the Apple One program, Google One might benefit from a revamp to include YouTube as well. A mix of larger cloud storage and ad-free services.
