YouTube Shorts expand to three minutes, chasing TikTok and Reels

YouTube Shorts will now allow three-minute videos, responding to creator demand. This shift follows trends from TikTok and Meta, reflecting growing competition.

Google will increase the time limit for YouTube Shorts to three minutes from the previous one-minute on Tuesday. [YOUTUBE]

The rising dominance of short-form content online is driving platform giants like Google, Meta and TikTok to release longer versions of their original one-minute formats, giving creators more flexibility to produce diverse content.

As of Tuesday, the timespan of YouTube Shorts will expand to three minutes from its initial one-minute limit, Todd Sherman, YouTube Shorts’ senior director of product management, announced in a post to YouTube Korea's blog, which Google Korea operates.

“This was a top requested feature by creators, so we’re excited to give you more flexibility to tell your story,” Sherman wrote. “We’ll be working to improve recommendations for longer Shorts in the coming months.”

Google is the latest platform to extending the duration of its short-form content. In 2021, ByteDance lengthened the maximum time of TikToks from one to three minutes. Meta’s Instagram Reels currently allows creators to upload videos as long as 90 seconds, a the same length offered by Naver’s short-form video service, Clip.

Platform operators are competing to release more diverse short-form content as the format becomes more popular, which is influencing the search market.

Google’s share of the U.S. ad market is expected to fall below 50 percent next year for the first time in a decade, and TikTok’s short-form content is the key factor behind the dip, according to eMarketer.

TikTok recently began to feature customized ads based on user search terms, the primary reason behind Google’s decision to extend the length of its short-form content to counter TikTok and other competitors.

Users in their teens and 20s frequently consume short-form content, making it a crucial offering for platforms that hope to stay competitive and maintain influence in the market.

The average Korean user between ages 15 and 59 spent 44 minutes per day consuming short-form content from July 12 to 23 of this year, with teens and 20-somethings logging 64 minutes and 55 minutes, respectively, according to data research firm MezzoMedia released last month.

Notably, more than half the two hours and four minutes that Korean teens spend watching videos each day was dedicated to short-form content.

But as usage of Shorts grows, so do concerns about the content’s negative effects. Four out of 10 Korean adolescents are at risk of smartphone overdependence, according to a report by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the National Information Society Agency. Twenty-three percent of short-form content users in Korea admitted to difficulties controlling their viewing habits. The figure was even higher for young children and adolescents, with 34.7 percent and 36.7 percent respectively.

Washington, D.C., and more than a dozen U.S. states filed lawsuits against TikTok earlier this month accusing the popular social media platform of harming youth mental health by designing its platform to be addictive to children.

“TikTok knows that its design features make its app more addictive and keep users engaged for longer,” District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb stated in the lawsuit. “While this may be good for business, it has perilous effects on children.”

Platforms are expected to continue experimenting with varied types of short-form content.

On the domestic side, portal giant Naver's My Place service now allows users to post reviews in short-form video format in addition to standard video reviews. Audio platform SpoonLabs has also released a short-form drama series with episodes of one to two minutes each.

Last month, Watcha became the first domestic streaming platform to dedicate a section to short-form dramas with the release of “Shortcha.”

“The success of short-form drama platforms like ReelShort and DramaBox in China and the U.S. shows that people are starting to consume short-form dramas,” SpoonLabs CEO Choi Hyuk-jae said.

BY KIM NAM-YOUNG [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]