YouTube has announced the arrival of the beta version of YouTube Shorts in Malaysia, the company’s new short-form video experience to create short, catchy videos from mobile phones. First announced in September 2020, YouTube has since expanded Shorts to 26 countries and will now be available across more than 100 countries around the world where YouTube is available.
While short form videos were already viewable in the platform, users around the world will be able to access for the first time Shorts’ creation tools which include a multi-segment camera to string multiple video clips together, the ability to record with music, control speed settings, and more. In addition, and timed with the product’s international expansion, we’re bringing a new set of features such as:
- Add text to specific points in your video
- Automatically add captions to your Short
- Record up to 60 seconds with the Shorts camera
- Add clips from your phone’s gallery to add to your recordings made with the Shorts camera
- Add basic filters to color correct your Shorts, with more effects to come in the future
Make it fun with YouTube Shorts – add text, captions, and record up to 60 seconds with the Shorts camera. You can also sample audio from other Shorts or videos across YouTube to remix it into your own creation.
The new features also include the ability to sample audio not only from other Shorts but also from videos all across YouTube — which includes billions of videos worldwide — unlocking a new playground of creativity like never before. This means that users can give their own creative spin on the content they love to watch on YouTube and help find it a new audience — whether it’s reacting to their favorite jokes, trying their hand at a creator’s latest recipe, or re-enacting comedic skits. Creators will be in control and will be able to opt out if they don’t want their long form video remixed.
“We want to make it easy and fun to create Shorts,” said Todd Sherman, Global Product Manager for YouTube Shorts. “As we continue to build Shorts alongside our creators and artists, we’ll be adding more features for users to try,” he added.
Delivering a seamless viewing experience across YouTube
Helping people find Shorts to enjoy and creators get discovered is also a key component of the product experience. That is why even before announcing the creation tools, we had introduced a row on the YouTube homepage especially for Shorts, launched a new watch experience that lets you easily swipe vertically from one video to the next, and will soon add a Shorts tab on mobile that makes it easier for users to watch Shorts with a single tap.
As of today, the YouTube Shorts player has surpassed 6.5 billion daily views globally.
Shorts will be integrated into the YouTube experience that users already know and love. For example, if a user hears a snippet of a song on Shorts, they can easily find the full song, watch the music video, or learn more about the artist — all on YouTube.
Supporting mobile creators
YouTube has helped an entire generation of creators turn their creativity into businesses and become the next generation of media companies. Over the last three years, we’ve paid more than $30 billion to creators, artists, and media companies.
With Shorts being a new way to watch and create on YouTube, the company has been looking at various ways to monetize Shorts and reward creators for their content, including the recently announced YouTube Shorts Fund, a USD $100M fund distributed over the course of 2021-2022.
“We know that it will take us time to get this right, and we’re just getting started. We can’t wait for you to try Shorts and help us build a first-class short-form video experience right on YouTube,” Sherman said.
Malaysian creators on YouTube Shorts
Speaking about her experience with the new tool, Jenn Chia, best known as ‘So, I’m Jenn’ says:
“The past few years, YouTube used to be where I only uploaded higher quality and bigger production videos. I really love how the platform is now supporting shorter, ‘less produced’, and more impromptu content.”
Similarly, bilingual recording artist, Cassidy La Creme who became a household name with her cover of the song ‘Ombak Rindu’ says:
“I am so excited by the release of YouTube Shorts! It is the perfect tool to allow me to give my audience more insight into my life without having to spend hours on production and editing. I feel like this will allow them to get to know me on a deeper level and to engage with them with new content more regularly.”
Siblings Jeii and Gaston Pong from the channel 碰碰PongPong expressed excitement about having new ways to create and connect with their audience.
“We can’t wait to create more amazing and fun content with this new feature! What a great way to connect audiences from all around the world with just a smartphone.”
Fitness and lifestyle entertainment personality, Linora Low feels encouraged by the views she’s seen with some of her early uploads and sees a new way to challenge herself as a content creator.
“YouTube Shorts challenges me to see how fast I can come up with content daily – and it’s a fun challenge at that. With a short-form content creation option, I can better ensure my channel keeps going, I love Shorts in a nutshell!”
With the option to create short and quick videos, Linora has more options to make fitness fun for her audience – “7 Days of Coffee Squats” is for all those who love their coffees as much as their squats.
The Shorts beta will start rolling out today and will be available to everybody over the next couple weeks.