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- Night Light | From 0 to 500M Views in 1 Month
Night Light | From 0 to 500M Views in 1 Month
Reed of the Week
Zhong's insane growth through YouTube Shorts
We've all seen the proliferation of Shorts-focused content on YouTube in the past few months. I came across a channel recently that went from zero to 500 million views in a month. I've talked before about how I think if anyone is going to surpass Jimmy in subscriber count, it's going be someone who gets popular from YouTube Shorts. But I don't think passing Jimmy in subscriber count from Shorts-driven growth would mean someone is even as close to as relevant as Jimmy in culture, because subscribers and views from Shorts don't mean a whole lot right now.
There's a bigger discussion around whether or not the subscriber button really holds value anymore. I believe YouTube would be smart to add some sort of differentiator between Shorts metrics and long-form metrics, or at least some increased visibility into how subscriber count and viewership interact. Here are some of my suggestions: 1. YouTube should differentiate between Shorts subscribers and Long-form subscribers.Rolling all subscribers into one is inflating subscriber counts which will become a problem for brands looking to advertise on channels. Allowing people to see a channel's Shorts subscribers and long-form subscribers would provide a better picture.2. Views and watch time should take over as the predominant metric of evaluating creator success. Views show a posts reach, but have largely been a vanity metric. Even for shorts we should be prioritizing watch time and view duration as success metrics. 3. YouTube should invest more readily in developing retention and churn-based metrics.Retention is everything. YouTube needs to provide metrics beyond watch time and views to show churn rates and returning viewers. Shorts channels can be engaging, but it's hard to see how a channel is retaining its audience with the metrics offered.
Creator News
Ludwig joins Moist Esports as co-ownerIn a world where 100 Thieves faces layoffs and FaZe's stock price is plummeting, Moist reigns supreme.
Doug DeMuro announces $37m investment from The Chernin GroupThat's roughly 265 standard issue Mercedes G Wagons, for anyone doing the math at home.
Elon Musk announces Twitter ad revenue share for creatorsOpting in requires subscribing to Twitter Blue. Elon is clearly doing everything he can to be creator-friendly and so far people are liking it.
Can't Miss Clips
Russell Westbrook and Gary Vee Exchange Courtside Words Russ must not have liked his most recent bottle of Empathy Wine.
Prime partners with UFCLogan and KSI are taking over the drink aisle and the sports world.
Esports training regimenA founding member of Optic's grade school team, potentially.
Business & Entrepreneurship
Coca-Cola enters influencer spaceThe Cola Wars finally enter the digital age. Blue chip brands stand to benefit greatly from this expansion into Gen Z marketing.
Linktree unveils new monetization optionsAnd they said money doesn't grow on trees...
Creative Juice announces incubator program for Black content-makersAn initiative toward supporting underrepresented groups on YouTube.