YouTube’s answer to TikTok, also known as YouTube Shorts, is available in 26 more countries including the Philippines.
First announced in September 2020, the expansion of YouTube Shorts globally means that content creators now have access to all the tools needed to create compelling short clips. Chief among these are multi-segment cameras, the ability to record with music, and more.
Other noteworthy features of YouTube Shorts include:
- Adding text to specific points in videos
- Automatically adding captions to Shorts
- Recording videos (up to 60 seconds) using the Shorts camera
- Adding clips from the gallery and stitch them with recordings made with the Shorts camera
- Basic filters for color correction
To broaden the creativity of its users, Shorts will also offer the ability to sample audio from YouTube’s vast collection of videos. This means that content creators can come up a creative spin on existing content on YouTube and tweak that to find new audiences.
“We want to make it easy and fun to create Shorts,” YouTube Shorts Global Product Manager Todd Sherman said. “As we continue to build Shorts alongside our creators and artists, we’ll be adding more features for people to try.”
With barely a year since it launch, Youtube Shorts has surpassed 6.5 billion daily views globally, showing that YouTube’s new platform has a sizable audience despite tough competition from other short video platforms like TikTok.
Like its main video platform, YouTube aims to monetize Shorts and reward its creators with the content they produce. This includes the recently-announced YouTube Shorts Fund, where it aims to distribute around $100 million over the course of 2021-2022.
“We know that it will take us time to get this right, and we’re just getting started. We can’t wait for you to try Shorts and help us build a first-class, short-form video experience right on YouTube,” Sherman adds.
