YouTube Shorts continues to develop six major features, toilet people become the new trend

The most powerful helper for brands going global is the powerful "grass planting" effect brought by short videos. If you want to plan short video grass planting well, you have to understand the current situation of YouTube Shorts and video content trends. In this article, the author fully and clearly explains the recent functional changes and video content trends of YouTube Shorts. It is recommended for people who want to understand brand operations.

When brands go global, they cannot avoid the powerful "grass-planting" effect brought by short videos. Relying on the powerful traffic pool brought by YouTube, YouTube Shorts has been carrying the ambition and mission of TikTok and Reels (Instagram's short video service) to divide the short video market since its birth. For brands going global, if you want to plan short video seeding, it is crucial to understand the current situation of YouTube Shorts and video content trends.

In this article, we will explore the six recent functional changes of YouTube Shortsr and the five content trends behind them.

Understanding the User Profile of YouTube Shorts

• Number of users: 2 billion+
• Monthly active users: 1.5 billion+;
• The dominant age group of users: 15-35 years old (77%);
• Gender ratio: female (46%), male (54%);
• Advertising coverage rate (over 18 years old): 32.4%.

1. Six major functional changes

1. Collab: A new collaboration tool

Collab is a collaborative feature launched by Twitter, similar to TikTok's "Duet" feature. The feature allows you to record Shorts with other content creators in a side-by-side format.

2. New effects and stickers: Driving innovative content

Over the past few months, Shorets has added dozens of new Shorts effects and stickers to help inspire creators in new ways, such as the upcoming Q&A sticker feature, which will allow creators to prompt viewers to respond directly in the Shorts feed, increasing user engagement.

Over the past few months, Shorets has added dozens of new Shorts effects and stickers to help inspire creators in new ways, such as the upcoming Q&A sticker feature, which will allow creators to prompt viewers to respond directly in the Shorts feed, increasing user engagement.

3. Vertical Live Broadcast: Connect with Your Audience

Currently, YouTube Shorts is testing a vertical live broadcast feature so that live broadcast creators can be discovered immediately in the Shorts feed!

Viewers in the test will see previews of vertical live videos mixed into the Shorts feed. When someone enters the experience, they will be placed in a scrollable feed of other live videos. This can help creators connect with new viewers in real time and build their communities in a modern and fun way, no matter where they are.

4. Creative suggestions: inspire inspiration

YouTube is implementing a new feature to help creators get inspired by and build on the work of their peers. The feature will automatically package the audio and effects from remixed shorts, streamlining the process for creators to make derivative content. This allows creators to focus on new creative additions rather than recreating the underlying components.

5. Save videos to playlists: Get inspired

YouTube has added the ability to save Shorts videos to playlists directly from the Shorts feed. This new feature allows creators to easily collect and organize the content they love to watch. These curated Shorts playlists are always available, giving creators an easy way to reference inspiration when brainstorming new Shorts.

6. Retooling tools: Transform long-form content

YouTube will soon begin testing new editing tools that will allow video creators to convert landscape/horizontal videos into Shorts. These tools allow creators to reframe, zoom, crop and split their existing long videos into more engaging Shorts. The new features will allow creators to reuse key parts from long videos and convert them into Shorts while retaining the essential visual elements.

2. Five content trends

1. Mass media is a source of creative inspiration

What is it?

Popular Media as Muse, derived from the canon events in the movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, has taken YouTube by storm this year, with videos with “canon events” in the title viewed over 150 million times.

The Web-Spinning event is an immutable plot point in every timeline because it is so crucial to the balance of the multiverse (like Spider-Man getting bit by a radioactive spider), and has become the source of a meme for fans who caption or title videos about their lives with something like "it's a canon event."

From the Wes Anderson trend to The Little Mermaid to Barbie, creators are using the unique aesthetics and iconic moments of these blockbusters to express themselves in new ways.

Why is it popular?

This is a proven and effective social media marketing strategy. Marketers can plan key news and fixed node events for each quarter, and then drive viral trends based on these themes.

The only twist here is that YouTube suggests you look to upcoming movies and other pop culture events as potential points of inspiration, though the relative cultural impact of each event is nearly impossible to predict ahead of time.

2. Skibidi toilet

What is it?

Skibidi toilet (Toilet Head) is from the Skibidi toilet series of short films uploaded by animation master DaFuq!?Boom!. It features a low-precision flushing toilet with a hint of retro style, and a sudden jump scare from the toilet. A male head stretches out, stretches, and rotates from the toilet, attacking every innocent victim indiscriminately. They often have ferocious faces and crazy behaviors, and they keep repeating the earthy divine song adapted from "Give It to Me". Each short film ends with the toilet head stretching its neck to try to bite the screen.

With 20 million loyal fans across the entire network and over 100 million views of the series of short films, Skibidi toilet human head directly surpassed any hot memes in 2023 and became the "King of the Annual Meme on the External Network". Just like "Scary Big Blue Cat", "Squid Game" and "Drawing Line Dog Head", the toilet human head has also become a new favorite of many advertisers.

Why is it popular?

The stable updates and well-made original works, coupled with the imaginative and potential-filled fan creations, have made the skibidi toilet head series move from the circle of niche enthusiasts to the world's users.

3. The rise of Rizz

What is it?

The word “rizz”, which comes from chaRIZZma (correct spelling: charisma), which simply means the ability to capture others, has become a touchstone of Gen Z slang and has led to a boom in rizz content on YouTube.

Over the past year, daily uploads of videos with rizz in the title have increased more than 15 times, with over 600 million views. As more people adapt and engage with the concept of virality, the definition of rizz video content has expanded from POV videos to creators evaluating rizz displays and comedy sketches.

Why is it popular?

This is an example of participatory content, where an initial trend sparks further engagement with the term.

4. MBTI test sharing

What is it?

“Are you a T?” That’s the question posed by Korean Shorts creators, who use the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test to create funny videos and memes. In Korea, the MBTI functions similarly to the horoscope in the United States, providing a shortcut for people to discuss their personalities. In Korea, MBTI-related videos have been viewed 100 million times in the past 90 days.

Why is it popular?

Things like the Myers-Briggs personality test give creators the opportunity to share traits they’re proud of, or share more intimate details about themselves in a relatable way.

It’s a kind of “allowed flexibility” without showing off, and an exploration of their identities in relation to other people, which is what audiences always love to see.

5. Chess

What is it?

Chess has been extremely popular since it sparked interest during the pandemic, with more than 4 billion views of chess-related videos this year. In Japan, for example, there has been a resurgence in the chess-like game Shogi, which has been viewed more than 350 million times this year.

Why is it popular?

With just a little creativity and the application of the aesthetics of today’s videos and different formats, something old can be made new again. Not all video concepts need to be brand new, as classics can be refreshed or modernized without necessarily reinventing new concepts.

Author: Inpander, Source: WeChat public account "Inpander Going Global"