The past few years have been a transition for all of us. YouTube adapted to changes in our lives we couldn’t have imagined before the pandemic. Along the way, we’ve seen incredible growth in the YouTube community. Creators are coming to our platform to share their lives, to make a living, and to shape the world around us in meaningful ways. They’re bringing us together to do good in the world. We saw the impact of these efforts last year when MrBeast and Mark Rober launched Team Seas to raise funds to remove 30 million pounds of trash from our oceans, beaches, and rivers.
YouTube is focused on growing our platform in the year ahead. Today I (CEO Susan Wojcicki) want to check in with an update on our key priorities: the state of the creator economy, innovation, supporting the work of creators, and protecting the YouTube community.
YouTube has now hit 5 Trillion all-time views on Shorts!
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More people are creating content on YouTube than ever before. YouTube has seeing momentum across the platform, including on Shorts. They are now hit 5 trillion all-time views on Shorts!
Creators are helping us learn, keeping us entertained, and also significantly impacting the global economy. The number of channels around the world making more than $10,000 a year is up 40 percent year over year.
And a series of reports from Oxford Economics has shown the impact of the creator economy. In 2020, as people around the world adapted to changing circumstances around the pandemic, YouTube’s creative ecosystem supported more than 800,000 jobs in 2020 in the United States, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Brazil, Australia, and the EU combined.
“When I first started at YouTube, there was only one way for a creator to make money on the platform: ads. We’ve been working over the years to expand the opportunities available to creators to connect with their audiences. Now there are 10 ways for creators to make money on YouTube!” says CEO Susan Wojcicki.
These are a few of the areas YouTube is investing in this year:
Shorts
We’re working every day to improve how we help creators get started and reach an audience faster on Shorts. Last year, we started rolling out a new remix feature that lets you create Shorts using audio from other YouTube videos. In the months ahead we’ll expand this capability with even more exciting ways to remix YouTube’s content.
Creators are doing amazing things on Shorts, from newer creators like Jake Fellman, Lisa Nguyen, and Chahat Anand to creators that have been on the platform for years, like Colin and Samir.
Music
Last year was an incredible year for Music on YouTube. We passed a huge milestone in 2021 – YouTube now has more than 50 Million Music and Premium subscribers, including trailers. And last spring we announced that YouTube paid more than $4 Billion to the music industry over the previous 12 months.
We’re continuing to connect artists with their fans around the world, including major moments like BLACKPINK’s first-ever livestream concert experience and the BTS Permission to Dance Shorts Challenge.
Gaming
YouTube has seen incredible strides in the evolution of gaming on YouTube, from immersive storytelling to the world’s biggest esports finding a home on our platform. In the first half of 2021 alone, YouTube saw over 800 billion gaming-related views, over 90 million hours live streamed, and over 250 million uploads
Shopping
This social media video platform is investing to make itself the next generation of commerce. We’ve introduced a creator tagging pilot program that gives viewers the chance to browse, learn about, and shop products featured in their favorite videos. We’re also in the early phases of testing how shopping can be integrated with Shorts.
Living Room
TV remained our fastest growing screen in 2021. We’re exploring more ways to bring the best of YouTube to TV and help viewers use their phones to more easily interact with YouTube videos they’re watching on TV.
Follow @itp.live to keep a tab on social media updates!