YouTube launched its short-form video experience on Thursday (March 18) in beta for select users in the U.S. after a successful initial rollout in India last month, according to a blog post by Todd Sherman, the product lead for YouTube Shorts.
“The number of Indian channels using our creation tools has more than tripled since the beginning of December alone,” Sherman said in the post.
YouTube Shorts lets users create short videos using a smartphone. More than 6.5 billion people tuned into YouTube Shorts worldwide since December 2020, and the number of Indian channels using the tool has more than tripled.
“We’ll gradually expand our Shorts beta to the U.S. We plan to introduce more features as we continue to build Shorts alongside creators and artists,” Sherman said in the post. YouTube also is testing out a Shorts tab on mobile for single-tap access.
As part of the beta rollout in the U.S., YouTube will offer a growing catalog of music from over 250 labels and publishers — Universal, Sony, Warner, Believe, Merlin, 300 Entertainment, Kobalt, Beggars, CD Baby, Empire, Peer, Reservoir, OneRPM and more. “As we expand Shorts, the library and number of partners will continue to grow,” the post stated.
The beta launch in India included basic creation tools — a multi-segment camera to connect multiple shots, the ability to record with music, speed setting controls and more. The U.S. launch added new tools like the ability to add text and remix audio from other Shorts. Soon, creators will be able to integrate audio from videos throughout the YouTube global library, provided the original doesn’t opt out of a remix.
Shopify’s social commerce partnership with TikTok in the U.S. in October is now launching across 14 additional countries in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Pinterest, Snapchat, Twitter and Facebook have also announced plans to get into the social commerce market.
When YouTube announced last month that it was planning to roll out Shorts to the U.S., its beta launch in India was reaching 3.5 billion daily views around the world.
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