The Rise and Fall of YouTube: How to Create Successful Content and Introducing Shorts
Analyzing YouTube success stories and its adaptation of short-form video content.
Photo Source: YouTube via Variety
Sometimes I think back to my early teenage years, circa 2014, when my friends and I were unknowingly living through the start of the social media revolution. At that time, Instagram and Snapchat, which came out in 2010 and 2011 respectively, had not yet surpassed YouTube’s prominent place in our lives. Watching MyLifeAsEva’s videos every day after school was still basically a rite of passage for a middle school girl. While Instagram and Snapchat grew in popularity as the years went by, YouTube stood strong as the primary video-sharing platform… that was until Vine and Musical.ly came along.
These platforms, released in 2013 and 2014 respectively, were the first popular platforms that specialized in short-form video content, Vine primarily hosting comedy content and Musical.ly hosting creative lip-synching videos. I can’t say whether or not these platforms hurt YouTube’s popularity, but I can say for certain that in the years that followed, we entered the era of short-form video. Vine was discontinued in 2016, and Musical.ly was replaced by TikTok in 2018, bringing about its dominance as a short-form video platform, a power that it still holds today.
So, what has YouTube been up to since then?
For the most part, YouTube has held its footing as a long-form video platform. In my opinion, you simply can’t discuss YouTube success stories without mentioning Emma Chamberlain. When she began uploading videos in 2017, Chamberlain was an almost overnight success, ammassing 8 million followers in only two years. Not only has she been incredibly successful, but she also set the precedent for a new style of video on YouTube and beyond - rather than being overly polished, she was completely authentic on camera and recorded many of her emotionally significant moments, creating a persona that was both funny and relatable. For a majority of her videos, the actual content was not what drew people in. Viewers watched for her animated stories, which she directed at her audience as though they were her closest friends, and her humorous editing style that frequented pausing and zooming in on the best moments.
Chamberlain has since shifted away from YouTube, but there are plenty of YouTubers still capturing enormous audiences. In December 2022, MrBeast overtook PewDiePie as the most subscribed individual, with 116 million subscribers against PewDiePies’s 111 million. As I write this, MrBeast is sitting at 136 million, with PewDiePie remaining at 111 million. This past December was the first time that there has been a change at the very top in 10 years, though the top two individuals have both found massive success as YouTube sensations.
What are these people doing right?
First, let’s take a look at Chamberlain. According to ForCreators, there are four key things she did right, which are pretty easy for smaller creators to emulate.
Heavily incorporating trends in early videos and video titles. For example, creating “hauls” back in 2017.
Securing a brand partnership and collaborating with other influencers sponsored by that brand in order to access each others’ audiences.
Intentionally collaborating with more popular creators over a fixed period. Chamberlain was part of the “Sister Squad” consisting of James Charles, the Dolan Twins and herself. Between June and December of 2018, when the Sister Squad was collaborating, she gained 4.7 million subscribers!
Diversifying by expanding her brand to other businesses, such as a podcast, coffee company and designer brand ambassadorship, thus allowing her to rely less on YouTube as a full-time job.
However, if we look at MrBeast’s success story, he took a slightly different path. In 2017, he posted a video counting from zero to 100,000 for over 40 hours straight. This video went viral, resulting in a million subscribers by November of 2017. From then on, MrBeast continued filming attention grabbing stunts, which only got more ambitious as his following grew. As his popularity increased, he began receiving six figure brand deals, which enabled him to put on even more lengthy, demanding stunts, with huge prizes for contestants. He also began executing and filming philanthropic stunts, such as paying for 1,000 people’s cataract eye surgery. This style of video is known as stunt philanthropy, and like Chamberlain, MrBeast is considered the creator of his video style. Also like Chamberlain, MrBeast has diversified his income through the launching of MrBeast Burger, first a virtual restaurant, then a physical location in New Jersey.
So, if these people have been so successful, making millions of dollars annually, is it possible that YouTube has been going downhill?
Unfortunately, it looks like the answer is yes. While the video sharing platform has continued to be profitable for its top creators, it has endured quite a few issues in recent years involving how viewers can comment on videos, music copyright claims and advertisers pulling out. This last factor seems to be the most persistent. Advertisers began pulling out when their ads were placed with content that they did not deem “family friendly,” so YouTube responded by changing the monetization scheme in 2017 to require that content be family appropriate.
Then, in 2018, YouTube required that an account have more than 1,000 subscribers and at least 4,000 watch hours per year in order to be monetized, thus pushing out small creators and deterring new ones from producing content on the platform. If that wasn’t messy enough, in 2019 more trouble with advertisers brought about stricter rules, which involved disabling comments on videos and deleting entire accounts. Unfortunately, during YouTube’s rampage many innocent videos and accounts got taken down, and many creators claimed that they received very little support from the platform while trying to remedy this issue. While it does seem that YouTube was trying to fix some problems, it really wound up neglecting the people who made the platform what it is.
YouTube’s uniqueness always came from its role as an alternative to traditional media, a place to access individual thought and opinion. However, by shutting the door on so many creators, YouTube only managed to speed up its own decline. Over the years, though, YouTube has been repeatedly forgiven for its mishaps, perhaps because there is currently no real comparable platform with as wide of a reach. However, as of 2023, it looks as though many creators are leaving YouTube due to the difficulty of monetizing their content and moving to platforms with subscription or donation revenue.
Will YouTube Shorts save the day?
Initially launched in late 2020, YouTube Shorts is the platform's attempt to remain relevant by breaking into the short-form video industry - after all, it was the original video sharing platform.
Shorts are not monetized through YouTube’s Partner Program (the one with the high entry requirements mentioned above), but rather through a pool-based model in which the revenue generated from ads placed between Shorts is combined, and 45 percent of their allocated share is paid out to creators depending on their total proportion of views. The fund was launched with $100 million, and, according to Fast Company, 40 percent of creators monetizing their Shorts right now have never been paid by YouTube before. Of course, there are currently more creators on TikTok, but it looks like YouTube Shorts earnings will grow if more creators and advertisers migrate to the platform.
Also according to Fast Company, YouTube Shorts is currently averaging more than 30 billion views per day, a number four times what it was averaging a year ago. This is a good sign, seeing as the short-form video market is incredibly competitive and nearly every popular platform has tried to break in, such as Instagram Reels, Facebook Reels and Snapchat Spotlight.
Kevin Ferguson, Creator Partnership Director for Shorts, told Fast Company that he believes YouTube can emerge as a leader in this space because “we are prioritizing creator needs and creator feedback.” An ironic statement from a platform that has a history of putting creators on the back burner, but the development of the YouTube Shorts Community suggests that the platform may truly be looking to make amends with its creators. This program grants select creators special perks, including the ability to suggest features that should be implemented into Shorts.
If YouTube continues on this path of prioritizing individual creators, and embraces its identity as a community media platform, I think it can save itself from complete decline. As for me, while I don’t watch YouTube as religiously as I did in middle school (who has time for that as a college student??), I still enjoy content produced by creators on the platform and hope it never meets the same fate as Vine. Only time will tell, though, and we will be watching to see if Shorts results in the payoff that the platform hoped for.
Best,
Nina for the Don’t Count Us Out Yet Team