Daily views of YouTube shorts have surpassed 50 billion, up from 30 billion a year ago, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said in a fourth-quarter earnings call.
Shorts' growth was a rare bright spot for a quarter in which Alphabet saw revenue decline in segments such as search, YouTube and advertising. In particular, YouTube has posted a second quarter of year-over-year revenue declines as it faces stiff competition from TikTok.
YouTube's revenue was just under $8 billion, compared to $8.6 billion in the same period last year. Like other tech giants suffering from falling ad revenue, Alphabet attributed this to a cutback in advertiser spending amid fears of a looming recession.
The announcement of Shorts' high viewership comes just a day after YouTube allowed creators to share ad revenue from short videos with the company. By becoming a member of the YouTube Partner Program, users will receive a portion of the revenue from ads that appear in the background of both long and short videos. Because of this, some creators are already considering moving more of their content to YouTube Shorts.