According to the latest report, Google YouTube announced that it will begin testing ads in its short video platform Shorts, which is similar to TikTok short videos.
YouTube’s Shorts platform has been growing steadily since its launch in 2020, thanks to the appeal to creators and the push to users whether they like it or not. Now that YouTube Shorts has a healthy user base to take advantage of, the company has unveiled the next step in its plans to fill Shorts with ads.
On a recent earnings call, Philipp Schindler, Google’s chief commercial officer, told investors that YouTube is now experimenting with app install ads, similar to ads seen on Instagram and other promotions, that will be integrated into the Shorts short video vertical.
At this time, it is unclear how popular the ad test will be, or when the program will be available to all users of Shorts.
Later on the earnings call, Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat reiterated the plan to investors, saying that “we are testing Shorts monetization, and early advertiser feedback and results are encouraging.” “This means that the ads currently being tested may not disappear anytime soon.”
On the earnings call, Google also claimed that YouTube’s Shorts now get 30 billion views a day, four times as many as last year. While that huge number may seem like an impressive feat, YouTube still lags far behind TikTok, which said last October that the platform had 1 billion monthly active users.