YouTube Announces Plans for 2022
In a blog post, Neal Mohan, YouTube’s Chief Product Officer, announced details of what YouTube has in store for creators, viewers, and its brand partners:
While some of these are new projects, others are improvements to existing ones. So, what does YouTube have planned for 2022? Let’s have a look at some of the most noteworthy plans announced.
1. Improvements to Shorts
Since March 2021, YouTube has been pushing YouTube Shorts, its short-form video content feature similar to TikTok. Similar to other social media platforms, TikTok has put YouTube under pressure to emulate the success it has found with short-form video content.
With this, YouTube continues to invest in and develop Shorts, morphing the feature more into becoming more like TikTok. For instance, you’ll be able to reply to individual comments on your Shorts video with a short response video.
YouTube will also add new effects and editing tools to make your Shorts content even better, as well as the ability to remix audio from videos already on YouTube.
2. Collaborative Live Streaming
Creator collaborations are a key ingredient for success for creators on YouTube. With collaborative live streaming, creators can go live on the same live stream and create interactive content for their audiences.
Whether a fellow creator mentions another creator’s channel in their video, comments on another creator’s video, or joins them in a collaborative video, creator partnerships help channels grow. The ability to stream together will further strengthen those ties.
Aside from this, creators’ fans or followers will be privy to more laid-back content, likely in the form of conversations, and more fun and relatable content—which will be a nice break from the more structured content that they may be used to.
At the same time, this will allow creators to be exposed to other creators’ audiences, giving them opportunities to grow their reach, while also connecting with their fans in a unique way.
According to YouTube, daily live streaming watch time more than tripled from January 2020 to December 2021, so the move to introduce live streaming makes sense.
3. Web3 Opportunities to Help Deepen Creator-Fan Relationships
YouTube plans to use blockchain and NFTs to strengthen creator-fan relationships by giving both parties the ability to work together on new projects and earn money in ways they weren’t able to in the past.
This includes the ability for fans to purchase exclusive content in the form of videos, photos, and more, from their favorite creators.
4. Creating Experiences in the Metaverse
Unlike Apple’s direction to not follow the metaverse trend, YouTube believes in the metaverse and wants to create a more immersive viewing experience—starting with gaming.
However, YouTube hasn’t revealed much about its plans to tap into the metaverse, except that it wants to make gaming interactions feel more alive.
5. New Shopping Opportunities
YouTube intends to create more e-commerce opportunities for brands through several avenues on its platform, which includes shoppable videos, live shopping, as well as how shopping generally appears on the app.
While brands currently make money on YouTube through creator partnerships, collaborations, and ads that appear while a video is playing, YouTube is adding more ways for people to shop on its platform.
This will create more opportunities for seamless shopping experiences for brands on YouTube, like users being able to shop items that that their favorite creators tag in their videos.
YouTube Is Making Big Moves in 2022
In 2022, YouTube’s plans to include projects that other technology companies are also taking up or focusing on.
For instance, blockchain technology is a much-talked about phenomenon that is gaining more popularity in this day and age, and one that might become increasingly relevant with time. Aside from this, short-form video is also believed to be the future of video content.
By gearing towards these projects and more, YouTube is keeping up with the times and ensuring that it remains relevant in the market for the years to come.
