Short-form content (also known as short-form videos) are short videos, often from movies or entertainment videos, that are published on platforms like

YouTube Shorts YouTube Shorts is the short-form section of the online video-sharing platform YouTube. YouTube Shorts are vertical videos that have a duration of up to 180 seconds, and has various features for user interaction. Videos were limited to 60 ...

TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...

, and others. Short-form content has become popular among young people, especially those of

Generation Z Generation Z (often shortened to Gen Z), also known as zoomers, is the demographic cohort succeeding Millennials and preceding Generation Alpha. Researchers and popular media use the mid-to-late 1990s as starting birth years and the early 2 ...

and

Alpha Alpha (uppercase , lowercase ) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of one. Alpha is derived from the Phoenician letter ''aleph'' , whose name comes from the West Semitic word for ' ...

, shaping modern

internet culture Internet culture refers to culture developed and maintained among frequent and active users of the Internet (also known as netizens) who primarily communicate with one another as members of online communities; that is, a culture whose influence ...

. Short-form content gained some popularity in the

2010s File:2010s collage v22.png, From top left, clockwise: Anti-government protests called the Arab Spring arose in 2010–2011, and as a result, many governments were overthrown, including when Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi was Death of Muammar Gad ...

before becoming even more popular in the

2020s The 2020s (pronounced "twenty-twenties" or "two thousand ndtwenties"; shortened to "the '20s" and also known as "The Twenties") is the current decade that began on 1 January 2020, and will end on 31 December 2029. The 2020s began with th ...

, especially with the creation of platforms such as TikTok, YouTube Shorts,

Instagram Reels Instagram is an American photo and short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters, be organized by hashtags, and be associated with a location via ...

, etc. Most short-form content today is usually shown as a

vertical video A vertical video is a video created either by a camera or computer that is intended for viewing in portrait mode, producing an image that is taller than it is wide. It thus sits in opposition to the multiple horizontal formats normalised by ci ...

up to a few minutes long (3 minutes maximum for YouTube Shorts content ). They can contain snippets of videos taken out of context and made as

memes A meme (; ) is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme. A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ...

. Sometimes short-form content can be used to attract the public to the user's other accounts or their other long-form contents.

On the Internet

Short videos became popular in the 2010s.

Snapchat Snapchat is an American multimedia social media and instant messaging app and service developed by Snap Inc., originally Snapchat Inc. One of the principal features of the app are that pictures and messages, known as "snaps", are usually availa ...

started allowing users to share 10-second videos in 2012.

Vine A vine is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems, lianas, or runners. The word ''vine'' can also refer to such stems or runners themselves, for instance, when used in wicker work.Jackson; Benjamin; Da ...

, which was launched in 2013 and restricted videos to a maximum length of six seconds, helped short-form videos achieve mainstream popularity and gave rise to a new generation of public figures such as

Kurtis Conner Kurtis Matthew Kenneth Conner (born May 4, 1994) is a Canadian comedian, YouTuber, and podcaster. , his YouTube channel has accumulated over 5.38 million subscribers. Internet career Early online career (2013–2017) Conner began social me ...

David Dobrik Dávid Julián Dobrík (; ; born July 23, 1996) is an Internet personality, YouTuber, streamer and vlogger. He amassed a million followers on the video-sharing platform Vine before starting his vlog on YouTube in 2015. Dobrik is the leader o ...

Danny Gonzalez Daniel James Gonzalez (born June 12, 1994) is an American commentary YouTuber and musician who originally came to prominence for his short comedy sketches on Vine in 2014. He created his main YouTube channel that same year, subsequently mov ...

Drew Gooden Andrew Melvin Gooden III (born September 24, 1981) is an American former professional basketball player who is currently a broadcaster for Monumental Sports Network. The power forward (basketball), power forward played 14 seasons in the Nationa ...

Liza Koshy Elizabeth Shaila Koshy (born March 31, 1996) is an American YouTuber and actress. Her main YouTube channel has amassed almost 17 million subscribers, and her two channels have a combined total of over 3 billion views. She has received four Str ...

Shawn Mendes Shawn Peter Raul Mendes ( , ; born August 8, 1998) is a Canadian singer. He gained a following in 2013 when he posted song covers on the video-sharing platform Vine (software), Vine. The following year, he caught the attention of artist manage ...

Jake Paul Jake Joseph Paul (born January 17, 1997) is an American Professional boxing, professional boxer, influencer and actor. He began his career posting videos on Vine (service), Vine in September 2013 and had amassed 5.3 million followers and 2 bi ...

Logan Paul Logan Alexander Paul (born April 1, 1995) is an American influencer, professional wrestler, Entrepreneurship, entrepreneur, boxing, boxer, and actor. He has over 23 million subscribers on his YouTube channel ''Logan Paul Vlogs'' and has ranked ...

, and

Lele Pons Eleonora "Lele" Pons Maronese ( ; born 25 June 1996) is an American and Venezuelan YouTuber, actress and singer. Pons came to prominence on Vine before the platform was shut down in 2016 where she was the most followed woman and the third most ...

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

responded to Vine's popularity by adding the ability to share 15-second videos in 2013, and has since expanded its video functionality with numerous additional features, including

Reels A reel is a tool used to store elongated and flexible objects (e.g. yarns/ cords, ribbons, cables, hoses, etc.) by wrapping the material around a cylindrical core known as a '' spool''. Many reels also have flanges (known as the ''rims'') arou ...

. Following Vine's closure in 2017, most of its notable users began making longer videos on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

. After

merged with

Musical.ly Musical.ly (pronounced "Musically", styled as musical.ly) was a social media service headquartered in Shanghai with an American office in Santa Monica, California, on which platform users created and shared short lip-sync videos. The first prot ...

in 2018, TikTok became the most widely used short-form video app and has since become one of the world's most popular apps. In 2020, Vine co-founder

Dom Hofmann Dominik Hofmann (born September 27, 1986) is an American entrepreneur and programmer. He is best known for being one of the co-founders of Vine as well as being the creator of Peach, Byte and Loot. Career Vine In June 2012, Hofmann co-found ...

launched Vine's intended successor Byte (later renamed Clash and then Huddles). In 2021, as a response to the ever-increasing competition presented by TikTok, YouTube launched

to host videos up to a maximum length of 60 seconds, later extending it to 3 minutes in 2024. YouTube Shorts collectively earned over 5 trillion views within 6 months.

Business models of short video platforms

Advertising revenue

Advertising is still the most basic profit model of short video platforms. Platforms achieve precision marketing through information flow advertising, short video interstitial advertising and brand cooperation promotion. For example, TikTok Ads allows brands to deliver targeted ads based on user interests, viewing behavior and social interactions to increase advertising conversion rates. However, as users' tolerance for advertising decreases, platforms are exploring more interactive and immersive advertising formats, such as AR filter ads and brand challenges.

Live broadcast rewards

The live broadcast function of short video platforms has become an important source of income for content creators. Users can reward anchors through virtual gifts while watching live broadcasts, and the platform will extract a certain percentage of the share.

Douyin TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...

and

Kuaishou Kuaishou Technology ( zh, c=快手, l=quick hand) is a Chinese publicly traded partly state-owned holding company based in Haidian District, Beijing, that was founded in 2011 by Hua Su (宿华) and Cheng Yixiao (程一笑). The company, liste ...

in China, as well as

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and

Live in the West, have adopted similar models. However, the live broadcast reward model is greatly affected by regional culture and regulatory policies, and may face policy restrictions in some countries.

Membership subscription

Some short video platforms have launched membership subscription services, such as

YouTube Premium YouTube Premium (formerly Music Key and YouTube Red) is a subscription service offered by the American video platform YouTube. The service provides ad-free access to content across the service, as well as access to premium YouTube Originals ...

and TikTok’s Live Subscription. Users pay a certain fee to enjoy ad-free, exclusive content and higher interactive rights. This model provides a stable source of income for the platform, but it still plays a supporting role in the short video ecosystem.

E-commerce live streaming

E-commerce live streaming is one of the key models for the commercialization of short video platforms. It combines the entertainment of short videos with the convenience of e-commerce, forming a business logic of "content is marketing, interaction is transaction". The process is first content creation and product display. The anchor or brand will introduce the product through live streaming, including trial, evaluation and promotion information. The second is real-time interaction. Users can interact with the anchor through comments, likes and questions to enhance the sense of trust in purchase and allow consumers to gain an immersive purchasing experience and emotional value in interpersonal relationships. The anchor can display the product in a variety of ways, such as product close-ups, trials, promotions, etc., and eliminate consumers' concerns and reservations through words, enhance their social presence and provide a positive emotional experience. Finally, one-click purchase and instant transaction. Users can directly click on the product link in the live broadcast to jump to the purchase page, shorten the decision path and improve the conversion rate.

Development trend

The Chinese market is in a leading position in the field of e-commerce live streaming. Platforms such as Douyin have formed a complete live e-commerce ecosystem. The sales revenue of various types of live broadcast e-commerce will reach one trillion yuan, and cultural and tourism enterprises are paying more and more attention to live broadcasting, demonstrating the huge potential of live e-commerce. Moreover, Douyin e-commerce relies on precise recommendation algorithms to provide brands and individual merchants with a stable source of traffic, enabling small and medium-sized merchants to achieve efficient sales. Although e-commerce live streaming has achieved great success in China, it still faces challenges in promoting it in the international market. However, some platforms are actively trying, such as

TikTok Shop TikTok Shop is an e-commerce feature of the video hosting service TikTok. Officially launched in September 2023, the feature enables users interested in starting a business and generating income to upload their curated products on TikTok for othe ...

: TikTok took the lead in promoting the live streaming sales model in the Southeast Asian market, and piloted "TikTok Shop" in the UK market, allowing brands and influencers to sell goods through live streaming. There is also

Amazon Live Amazon.com, Inc., doing business as Amazon, is an American multinational technology company engaged in e-commerce, cloud computing, online advertising, digital streaming, and artificial intelligence. Founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos in Bellevue ...

: Amazon launched the live streaming shopping function, combined with the platform's strong supply chain capabilities, trying to introduce live streaming shopping into the European and American markets.

Challenges and future development

Although the prospects for live streaming e-commerce in China are very broad and Chinese people already consider it a part of their daily lives, there are many difficulties in promoting it globally. Western consumers have a low acceptance and adaptability to "live streaming shopping" and are more accustomed to the traditional e-commerce model. And payment methods, logistics services and after-sales systems need to be improved to match the instant transaction needs of e-commerce live streaming. In the future, with the advancement of AI recommendation algorithms, the development of cross-border e-commerce and the improvement of the social media ecosystem, e-commerce live streaming is expected to become more popular in the global market and become one of the core profit models of short video platforms.

References

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