YouTube Shorts releases first India-centric ad 

It will primarily take on Instagram Reels and other short video apps.

YouTube Shorts, the in-app short-form video (SFV) feature from YouTube, has just released an ad for the Indian market.

The ad, whilst basic, talks about of how easy it is to create content on YouTube Shorts, which takes on the likes of Instagram Reels, Moj, Josh, MX TakaTak and other short video apps in India.

“YouTube Shorts, which was introduced a year ago to compete with Instagram Reels and TikTok, is generating 15 billion views globally on a daily basis with a ‘meaningful part’ coming from India,” said Satya Raghavan, director, YouTube Content Partnerships, India, to The Hindu in October this year (2021).

In May this year, we saw the introduction of the $100 million YouTube Shorts Fund that will be distributed throughout 2021-22.

YouTube’s blog post about this fund reads, “Each month, we’ll reach out to thousands of creators whose Shorts received the most engagement and views to reward them for their contributions. We’ll also ask these creators to share their feedback with us so we can continue to improve the product experience.”

“The Shorts Fund is not limited to just creators in the YouTube Partner Program. Creators will be eligible to participate if they create original content for Shorts and adhere to our Community Guidelines.”

The Indian short video app market is incredibly lucrative and can’t be ignored.

“Every second person I know wants to be a blogger or an influencer,” remarked my friend. And, why not? It’s a well-paying business once you (creator) start collaborating with brands, and fame is quite the addiction. Also, the audience is here to stay.

“More than 200 million Indians watched SFVs at least once in 2020, with an active user spending up to 45 minutes a day on these platforms,” says an October 2021 report titled ‘Online Videos in India - The Long and Short of It’ from Bain, a consultancy firm.

With an endless supply of creators and an engaged audience, the real contest for entertainment will most probably be over these 10-60-second videos in the near future.