Transcription
Reels, shorts, stories everywhere you look. Short videos have taken over social media, and right now there's one platform that dominates: TikTok. I'm scrolling every single day. I do scroll all the time. I'm checking constantly throughout the day. I'm fully addicted to TikTok. I spend a lot of time on the app, and I think it's because they're so good at giving you content that directly matches what you're interested in.
TikTok is the center of the internet for young people. It's where they go to be entertained. It's where they go to keep up with the news. It's where they go to find out about trends. They go to search for things and shop, and the list goes on. Since 2016, TikTok has grown to over 1.12 billion monthly active users worldwide. In the U.S., nearly 118 million people use TikTok frequently, spending an average of 108 minutes per day on the app. I'm properly consuming content on TikTok—yeah, at least three hours each day. That kind of engagement has made short videos a multi-billion dollar industry.
Now platforms like YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, and even LinkedIn are racing to catch up. Short-form video—that's kind of like the bite-size version of video—what's consumable when you're looking at your phone? Maybe you're waiting in line to grab some food somewhere or something. It just seems to be the right format for video in social media. Short-form videos aren't just popular; they're transforming the way we consume content by being fast, addictive, and algorithm-driven.
The algorithm has also been the envy of many other social platforms, including Meta, which has been updating its content recommendation systems to be more similar to TikTok's. And the algorithm is also what has drawn, and continues to draw, a lot of, especially aspiring creators, to the app. They went all in on short-form video when others weren't really touching it. Famously, Twitter had short-form video first with Vine, but for whatever reason, they gave up on it. And so that created a vacuum that TikTok really went into. And definitely the algorithm that they have seems to do a really good job at understanding what folks are interested in, and that has been difficult for others to replicate.
But why are these videos so addictive? It comes down to three key factors: speed, personalization, and infinite scrolling. I love that the platform feels like a very strong community. The algorithm is really great at spreading information quickly and things that are relevant to you. Generally, when I speak to teens, what I hear from them is that they feel like the videos that they are being shown on their feeds on TikTok are particularly compelling. They feel like TikTok has a better sense of what they want to see than they do themselves.
Unlike traditional posts or long-form videos, short videos deliver quick dopamine hits—a fast-paced mix of entertainment, education, and trends that keep users engaged for hours. Infinite scrolling and short-form is a method where just capturing your attention becomes the important thing, and doing so in very short bursts. Whereas in the past—entertainment, TV, radio plays—they're about capturing an audience's attention by being interesting and grabbing your attention to go on the journey of that show or that particular play. Whereas now it's almost as if, if we can just get a minute, a few seconds of your attention and lock you into this, you know, and then we'll send you another thing that you seem to like through the algorithm.
The numbers tell the story. TikTok's success has forced many other social media platforms to adapt. Meta-owned Instagram launched Reels in August 2020. Google-owned YouTube introduced Shorts in India in September 2020, after the country banned TikTok, and it launched in the U.S. in 2021. Facebook followed with its own version of Reels that year, and LinkedIn began experimenting with short-form video in early 2024, hoping to tap into the format's popularity for professional content and industry insights.
I have been using YouTube Shorts a lot, um, the past few months especially, and even just in the past month, my views have been up over 700%. So I do think it's becoming a lot more popular. I think Meta launching Reels and YouTube launching Shorts, it was smart for them to, you know, recognize that short-form was taking off, especially when it happened, which was in the early, you know, part of 2020 when pandemic lockdowns began and people were looking for things to do online and on their phones. I do still think that they're behind compared to, uh, where TikTok is. Uh, but, you know, it's better to have some sort of offering here than nothing at all.
Videos on Facebook and Instagram now represent more than 60% of time spent on both platforms. Reels alone makes up 50% of total time users spend on Instagram, and are reshared over 4.5 billion times a day on the platforms. To attract more creators, Instagram has doubled down on Reels with new tools such as three-minute Reels, trial Reels, and more editing tools. Meta's head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, hinted in the past that Reels may even become its own app, but Meta did not give a time frame on when or if this will happen, as competitors try to catch up to TikTok.
The Chinese-owned app continues to evolve, with features like TikTok Shop, longer videos, and more analytic tools for influencers. Meanwhile, LinkedIn is testing a new TikTok-style short-form video feed. Creators on LinkedIn are monetizing through multiple streams of income: brand partnerships, speaking gigs, client leads, courses, and digital products. There's a goldmine happening on LinkedIn right now. I would post a video on TikTok; the very same video will get 400 views, and I'll post it at midnight on LinkedIn and I'll wake up to 200,000 views. And then by 3:00 p.m., it'll have 3 million views. And like, you know, that's happened to me multiple times, where LinkedIn's algorithm kind of just lets the video simmer a bit and it can go from, you know, not having that many views to completely popping in in a similar way to TikTok's early days.
LinkedIn social media creator Chapman says she makes around $10,000 a month putting content on LinkedIn for her. The platform's professional audience makes it more lucrative than TikTok or Instagram right now. My income is brand partnerships with a little bit of consulting, and the impressions on there have exceeded over 70 million impressions in the last six months, which is something I've never seen on both Instagram and TikTok throughout my years doing this. As LinkedIn has moved from being a purely professional and job hunting site, it has become more of a hub for creators, for influencers, for celebrities, for brands, and thought leaders. We've also seen a shift to more personal content, and a lot of that has been driven by creators joining the platform and posting short videos. So LinkedIn rolling out a short video feed is really an example of them catering to these behaviors that are already happening on the platform.
But there's a dark side to short-form video. While the content is fun, it can be addictive and comes at a cost: shrinking attention spans, rising mental health concerns, and algorithm-driven engagement that often prioritizes sensationalism over substance. Kids need about nine hours of sleep depending on the age, and a lot of kids are struggling getting to sleep using their screens because the screens provide blue light. That then tells your brain it's time to wake up, stay awake, so it's harder to fall asleep. Kids who have trouble falling asleep will then resort to their phone to entertain themselves, to try to get to sleep. So it can affect your sleep. It's very easy to lose track of time when you're using social media. When the time is so excessive that it's starting to get in the way of other activities that would be good for mental health—things like sleep, um, time outside, time in person with friends and family—that's when it may become a problem. For many teens, it's it's hard to stop when they start using it.
Gen Z, the first generation to grow up with these platforms, is already showing signs of change. Many now watch long-form content at 1.5 or even two times speed, struggling to sit through traditional formats. I like to multitask and watch content while I do other things, so if I'm just scrolling on my phone sometimes, I might do the two-time speed—yeah. 100% TikTok ruined all of our attention spans. I don't think we can go back to the long-form video content.
But the concerns go beyond focus. They're spending too much time; it's too much information that's stressful. That can be anxiety-provoking for a number of kids. Now, with a potential TikTok sale looming and global scrutiny intensifying, platforms are facing a new kind of pressure—not just to keep users watching, but also to find ways to make it profitable.
Despite massive engagement, monetizing short-form video is tough. A few years ago, the majority of my income did come from TikTok. Now virtually, it's nothing; it's like pocket change. Kind of, um, same thing with Instagram. I don't make money over there as of right now. Unlike long-form content where platforms can insert multiple ads, short videos offer limited ad space. That means lower revenue per view, and creators are feeling it. Short video ads tend to be placed in between videos, so they're really easy for users to skip, which is one of the reasons, actually, that we have seen platforms prioritizing longer-form video because it gives them more opportunities to place ads. Most platforms, with the exception of YouTube and now Snapchat, also don't share ad revenue from short-form videos with creators, partially because it is harder to attribute an ad view to a short video than it is a long-form video when those ads are placed directly in the content.
In 2024, TikTok made an estimated $23.6 billion in ad revenue, but most creators earn only a few dollars per million views. YouTube Shorts introduced ad revenue sharing, but at about $0.04 per 1,000 views, it's far lower than what long-form YouTube videos generate. Creators are very frustrated. Technically, it is easier than ever to go viral, to build an audience, and to start a business. But in practice, what a lot of creators are finding is that the days of true virality are ending. As our social media usage has just become so much more fragmented, building a sustainable business is incredibly hard work, and there's a lot of competition out there. Viral success doesn't necessarily translate to sustainable businesses.
Creators are experimenting with new ways to make money. Brand deals and sponsorships are still the main source of income, but features like TikTok Shop, Instagram Shopping, and YouTube Super Thanks make it easier to sell directly to fans. Some are also turning to subscriptions, offering exclusive content for a monthly fee. This year, we expect creators to generate just over $10 billion from brand deals on social media, but their individual earnings will vary significantly based on a lot of different factors like which platforms they're on, how many platforms are included in the deal, follower counts, content formats, and the type of partnership.
I think if you're a company like Meta or Google, the revenue might not be there simply because it's the newer format and you're already doing advertising advertisements against your existing format. So as you introduce a new product, essentially, you know, you really got to get advertisers to learn the new offering, figure out how to do it. But then at the same time, you're cannibalizing your other offerings, right? So there's a transition period. Meta, they talk about this a lot. And, you know, they've gone through these cycles at various times in their history.
When TikTok faced a potential ban in the U.S., competitors quickly seized the moment. We saw some of this already during the brief shutdown in January, when there were creators taking to Instagram and a surge in engagement on both Shorts and Reels. Meta and YouTube would bring in about 50% of all reallocated TikTok ad dollars in the US if TikTok were to be banned this year. Even with these numbers, short-form video revenue still lags behind long-form content. I would say that it's tougher to to earn money if you're creating content that's under a minute now because YouTube rewards, you know, long-form videos. They still reward for Shorts, obviously, but the, you know, most money to be made on YouTube is with longer videos. Um, and now it's the same case with TikTok.
With ad limitations, shifting algorithms, and growing scrutiny from lawmakers, the future of short videos is still uncertain. Platforms are betting on e-commerce and AI-driven recommendations to stay ahead. But as engagement skyrockets and attention spans shrink, one question remains: is short-form video evolving social media or just reshaping how we consume content, for better or worse? So it certainly feels like, at least anecdotally, it does feel like it's affected people's attention span. In many ways, it's like Pandora's box, and it's been opened. You can't, you know, exactly put it back in. Right. So this is where we're at. And a lot of people love, you know, social media. And this is just kind of like the format of choice at the moment.