What YouTube Actually Wants in 2026

[00:02] for those new creators? What would you do differently based on what's changing >> have four videos ready to go when I told people about the channel. Somebody landing on the first video it was a no-brainer to watch the second video.

[00:15] what people are interested in. >> What do you think is the legitimate opportunity though [music] for like the new creator starting right now to make it in today's landscape? Welcome back to the Think Media podcast.

[00:28] Sean Cannell here [music] with Rene Ritchie, creator liaison, YouTube latest on the algorithm, some of the changes. Rene, welcome back to the me. >> So fired up to have you on the show.

[00:40] >> Yeah. >> One of the biggest theories, uh, maybe frustrations happening in the YouTube world is people feeling like long-form >> Yeah. >> And attributing that to perhaps homepage

[00:55] >> Whereas you would typically land on the homepage, maybe see six large, you know, long-form thumbnails you could click on. Seeing those numbers shift to four or to two. Short shelves taking up the homepage. Your experience on whether

[01:09] really happening and what are the numbers behind the scenes? that you can test things at scale and YouTube is always running experiments. Someone will say, "Hey, did you do change something?" And there's like 1%

[01:22] experiments, 2% experiments, just to get data and to get an idea of what is better and like inevitably for YouTube and for creators. Because like one of back up for a second, for me is that that revenue share deal. It means like

[01:36] and creators succeed when YouTube succeeds. So there's every motivation in the world for YouTube to do things that help creators, help videos get watched more, help viewers find better videos. So one of the things that we tested

[01:49] it turned out people liked bigger thumbnails. They could click on them more. It meant there were fewer thumbnails on like a load screen people like that they could see things better. One of the phenomenon of a lot

[02:02] to choose like you just see a whole board and you have like the the just don't know what to click on, but also like there might be a video you looking at the center and it's not the first video, but it's like the middle

[02:15] never realize everything around you. So, the next redesign was sort of making the best choices we could right at the top. So, there's fewer things for you to better recommendations. And so far what it's seeming like is that people are

[02:30] right up there and they're clicking on it. So, it is doing better for people to people to watch long-form videos. >> Do you feel like the less options though is affecting mid-size and smaller creators in the sense of they might not

[02:45] >> Yeah, well I think like one of the things we do is we also make sure we put smaller recommendations very close to the top in one of those first slots just chance. But as people scroll down there'll be a wide variety because the

[02:58] other thing that we found is that people do want a variety of recommendations. creators. They don't want just the same topic. They want to be able to either go deeper or change the channel. We have to provide them with both options.

[03:10] >> I have noticed that consistently new and small channels are showing up on my home feed and are being recommended to me. Not just videos with 10,000 views or a few. >> Yeah.

[03:23] >> 26 views. Especially related to my watch history. Can you explain how that would happen for someone that's like 20 million uploads a day >> is the number. How do I stand out on YouTube in the midst of 20 million

[03:35] those new creators? >> So, I think there's like two things to break out on that. One is if you are the creator and you want to stand out, I differentiated value. Like if you're the 20th person doing the same thing, it's

[03:49] really hard to stand out. But then also you have to build that audience. Like an oftentimes if I find a creator is like I don't want to be put in a box. I want to do all these different topics. Um but if someone like let's say you find a pasta

[04:01] restaurant you love and you go there every day or every week and it's your go there. Like I'm in the mood for it. I'm going to go there. I'm going to get it. And then you go there one day and it's it's giving you fish. And you're

[04:14] I just got bored of pasta. I'm making fish. The he can't force you to eat it. if you are struggling with that is to think of a consistent audience member. Like who am I making this video for? And make videos that that person will

[04:28] love over and over again. It's cliche, but Mr. Beast works because if you like face, you click on it, you get exactly what you expect. It's a no-brainer. If you clicked on Jimmy's face and you got a knitting video, you'd be like, "Oh,

[04:41] this isn't what I expected." And maybe super fans would watch, but they would something else." And then you'll try again because like you you like those videos on it and now he's fishing. And you're like, "I don't understand what's

[04:53] time you won't even click. But if you're getting that like your expectation is delivered on, that's like that's retention across videos. Not just across videos. That's how you start to build an audience that's consistently

[05:05] are consistently there for you. >> So that's one of the biggest debates in environment if that's to niche down or not. >> And it sounds like one is do I niche down my channel topic around cooking of

[05:18] a particular type or gardening or do I niche it down around an audience cuz there might be some variety, but there's a common audience. What is your advice down."

[05:30] >> Yeah, so it comes down to your expectations. So for example, on my companies and then I decided to make a couple videos about Twitter because it well at all because the people who are used to watching my channel weren't used

[05:42] to watching Twitter videos, so they weren't that interested in them. And so find, well, who is interested in this? And because they were topical and about Twitter, it eventually found them. But by then, people had watched channels

[05:54] they didn't care to watch a sixth video on Twitter. Uh if it was evergreen, I But it just means like you can make that choice. I did videos on phone reviews, knew the videos on accessibility would never get the amount of views that the

[06:09] phone reviews would, but they were important to me, so I made them. So, I is I get a million views for this. I do a different topic. I'm not getting a it's really like your audience is totally aligned with you in the and the

[06:22] then you do like a topic where the audience is not aligned with you, and don't get a lot. Like that's fine. It's the same as a Hollywood star making a and make the arthouse movie. They have no expectation the arthouse movie is

[06:35] going to get blockbuster numbers or payday, but they do the blockbuster so projects. And I think like creators can think more along those lines. >> That's a great analogy. I've heard a theory going around, and I'm curious

[06:47] your take on this. It's that algorithmically now YouTube is penalizing content that is uh repetitious or that's been done before.

[07:01] that. You cuz you what you had just mentioned, if somebody's already talked about this Twitter story 20 times, and you're late to the party, it could be videos. They've already heard it. But the theory was that because of AI being

[07:15] the theory was that because of AI being able to scan content that essentially a promoted, and something that is already been like repackaged or recovered. Is there any credence to that theory? >> So, the only the only part where YouTube

[07:29] repetitious, like templated. Yeah. So, if you make a hundred almost exactly the same videos, that's spam. That That's the definition of spam. And whether you do that with AI or with like CGI or with like stock footage, that doesn't matter.

[07:44] that's great. Like there's a lot of channels that are really successful that different things, logistics of FedEx, logistics of like Uber, logistics videos are not the same. They're not cookie cutters. But someone might upload

[08:01] again with like a very slight difference. spam. There's also creators who are very good like it it really is audience trying to do is understand the audience. And if creators worry less about the

[08:15] audience, you're doing the the same job. So, there's channels like Dr. Mike or Legal Eagle where they do news, interviews with government officials, um movie like they they do movie analysis, like how many laws were broken in Top

[08:30] Gun, or uh like Grey's Anatomy, is it medically accurate? And they do like told their audience like they've primarily branded for their audience. This is like think like a lawyer. And that gives them the ability No one's

[08:44] interview. They're coming there expecting I'm going to get stuff that is about the law or interesting about doctors. And that that overarching variety. >> So, the channel's made a promise to the

[08:58] variety cuz you're answering audience expectation is clear. you. >> So, there's been another new update uh many, but one is the subscription feed

[09:11] now has recommendations above the linear experience. Can you explain what happened and why that happened? >> Sure. So, uh love the subscription feed. It's not used by many people anymore, but the

[09:23] really love it. But over time we subscribe to more and more channels, and most people, also myself included, tend not to go through and take out stuff we longer, and the amount of videos we watch from it because everybody in spur

[09:38] everything, but we have very limited time. So, I might really want to watch subscription videos I've got on top and I click one and two and then I'm out of time. And I've not even scrolled down further to see. So, if some if the

[09:53] today, there's very little chance I'm going to get all the way down. But, so what we're trying to do is do a subset of recommendations based on your recent interest that only include the channels you're subscribed to. So, that

[10:06] way even if it's like the 50th video in the chronological index, but we know kinds of videos lately, we want to make that easier for you to find. >> Got it. So, it's kind of an amalgamation for that user of their watch history,

[10:20] subscription feed. >> a It's not all of YouTube like the home video subscription videos, and we want to help you find the ones you want to >> And so, and then of course people can still skip past that and see the linear

[10:33] blow right past it. >> If you're an entrepreneur or a creator that wants to scale their online business, that's why we created the Think Media Mastermind. >> I have so much more clarity as to my

[10:45] ideal target audience now, which means my content is about to be so much better person I'm trying to reach. >> Super intimate, high-level strategy. >> I had the skills that I already knew sharpened. I feel like I went to my next

[11:01] >> For entrepreneurs and creators that want to scale with YouTube. >> This was the first time that I was able to get in a room with a lot of other serious YouTubers and talk with other people who love creating content and

[11:14] love YouTube. Usually I don't get to do that, so this is really special. thinkmediamastermind.com. >> So, another interesting thing is an update to Shorts in terms of your own consuming experience of Shorts.

[11:28] >> Shorts Shorts are polarizing. Obviously, it's massive. Uh way bigger than TikTok now in terms of I think daily views. >> I don't know if it's bigger than Tik Tok views. >> Yeah, a lot of daily views. And then,

[11:41] know, I don't watch shorts. I only watch long form. You can adjust your >> do you do that? >> Yeah, so there's a shorts timer. You can go into settings and into the shorts timer, and you can set it all the way

[11:55] mean? >> It means that how So, some people just like I'm scrolling shorts too much. I only want to be able to scroll shorts myself 15 minutes a day. Or like you can use it as parental controls, too. You

[12:07] can say only want my kid to get 5 minutes of shorts a day or 10 minutes of shorts a day. And you can set that timer to a range. You can also set it to zero. And when you set it to zero, there's no more shorts feed. But it also takes the

[12:19] >> If you really want to find shorts, you can still go to the subscription tab for page for those creators, you'll still see the shorts tab there, and you can shorts. >> So, basically, if you want to remove

[12:34] just set the timer to zero. >> Yeah, and you can still go find like if find, you could do that. I mean, for some people some people only watch shorts. Some people only watch certain topics in shorts. Like I will watch a

[12:46] dancing short. I like I will not watch a like 30-minute dancing video. Nothing enjoy. And I'll watch like Some people watch cooking shorts, but not cooking And some people only want to watch long forms. We just want to give people like

[12:59] the ability to control their experience. >> Do you think best practice for shorts is thumbnail? >> So, I think it if you look at your your channels, it comes from the feed which where there are no thumbnails. But there

[13:12] are some people that get like significant search or browse traffic. on the home page or the short shelf in like in the in the search lead. And it's the same as a traditional thumbnail at that point where you're you're you're

[13:26] spend their time with you. >> Cuz I have noticed that for some search, shorts can show up as a result. And also in just home page experience, you have in that case the thumbnail matters. I

[13:40] mean, it can really help stand out. And my workflow for doing it is when posting a short on mobile, you can go in and select a frame, and you can add text. >> So, you could add like some clear one or two words to sort of reinforce that

[13:52] >> Yeah, absolutely. And but I think like people are going to experiment with it channels highly polished, like if you're running a videography channel, something thumbnail like you would a long form. But for a lot of people, shorts are a

[14:05] you know, there are huge shorts creators who like dance with like all the like they don't even think about thumbnails. Uh and some people do that MoistCr1tikal Penguinz0, often doesn't even put a thumbnail. He just uses the

[14:18] frame. Millions of views every time he posts. So, like figure out the vibe of experimenting around that. >> Gotcha. Okay, so you just did a couple talks here at the National Association of Broadcasters in Vegas. One of the

[14:30] things was on the algorithm, and I'm curious if you were starting a YouTube channel today, what would you do differently based on what's changing or explain maybe the understanding of some of that, as well as it could as what it

[14:44] can mean for us as everyday creators and business people that want to get views. saying like I know how to make videos. If I didn't know how to make videos, >> Yeah. >> on how to make videos. But like assuming

[14:56] >> In terms of storytelling, hooks. >> Yeah, like I just know I can edit a make a thumbnail. I know like the whole process. If I was coming into it cold, I videos just to get good at making videos first. Um but now that I know that, I

[15:10] videos I wanted for the channel. I'd make sure they had a very clear viewer journey, so that somebody landing on the first video was a no-brainer to watch the second video. I would upload three to four of those videos right away when

[15:22] landing on the first video would have a clear like they'd be able to binge watch that launch schedule? >> I would have four videos ready to go them all at the same time, put them live. Because like if someone likes the

[15:37] to watch, I've only got one video in their watch history. And watch history cuz that's what tells us what people are interested in. So if I get three to four I want to watch And at the end of that video I'd be like for the next video,

[15:51] want the details, if you want like what's next, watch this video and I get the next one. Suddenly I got two videos in watch history, three videos, maybe four videos. And then I would go to the regular schedule after that and I would

[16:03] ready. >> One of the statements we throw around here at Think Media is there's a couple things that are people are saying. This is an extreme, but I understand what people mean. They say subscribers don't

[16:16] matter anymore because we we both know you can have millions of subscribers and get like 50 views on a video. You could have 5,000 subscribers and get 500,000 views on a video. That each video needs to win on its own

[16:28] >> Yeah, I think like depending on what your goal is. Like a friend of mine Dave subscribers are every dollar you've ever had in the bank, which is an interesting your current balance, which is like unique viewers per month or like average

[16:41] monthly viewers, things like that. Subscribers can matter. Like if somebody subscribed a week ago, two weeks ago, a month ago and they're watching your subscribed 10 years ago and haven't watched your channel in 5 years, it's a

[16:54] consider whether someone subscribed or not, but again it's it's depending on how recently and how engaged they are. Engaged viewers, like people watching more important these days. >> So then this would be the statement we

[17:06] throw around. Consumption is greater than subscription. reasons. Some people just want to like. I guess I'll give you a subscription instead." Different

[17:19] different rates. Some barely subscribe anymore, some subscribe a ton. So, it can't depend on that number translating into like current success. I think it's just because you sold a million records before doesn't guarantee your next

[17:34] you had a great first two seasons of your TV show doesn't mean everyone's movie franchises where some of the movies aren't that good. So, I think version of that. >> So, when I say consumption matters more

[17:48] than subscription because if somebody consumes one or two videos, they start being recommended more. You're now in their watch history. And so, that is why >> for future views. >> And people like if you subscribe to a

[18:02] 27, like your interests are so different. And you might come back to There's literally like infinite content at this point and very finite time. And people just like aspirationally, they want to

[18:14] they they can't. So, being being recent, being there for them, and those can change as like the news changes or other creators they find. But yeah, having is more important than a subscriber. >> So, coming back to if you were starting

[18:27] a channel from zero today, you would four immediately that they're connected. You're going to keep that momentum up. One of the things you were talking about before we hit record that was also how

[18:40] the algorithm has evolved. There's been some changes to the YouTube algorithm. You mentioned more parameters. Explain that and how that would influence our advantage of it. >> Yeah, so the algorithm is always

[18:52] evolving. Like every day that the team tries to make it better and better. the algorithm's job is to serve the viewers, to give you the video you want that you want to watch it. So, for

[19:04] for coffee in the morning, you'll get a different set of recommendations than if ready to watch something long for the night. So, it does it tries to be smart about recommendations. What we're using now is like these larger models that let

[19:17] you hold more parameters, so it can understand you better. Like, one example is like let's say you watch a video on Indian food. Is it Indian food that curries that you're interested in. And then maybe the recommendation should be

[19:29] for Thai curries. Like, it should learn to understand you better. That's good videos put in front of people who don't want to watch them. We get like our about that. But also, viewers don't want to have to like go through a bunch of

[19:41] want to find they want to watch relatively quickly. parties. >> Do >> So, depending on what you mean by keywords. So, like the tags that if you

[19:53] >> Yeah, I don't mean tags at yeah, we know tags carry very little keyword or a keyword phrase, it might be something very prominent in the title. idea or a current trend. >> Yeah, so like in the like have a good

[20:09] accurate description, but YouTube really goes off of the behavior. So, like people will try to stuff stuff in the in the description. That's

[21:09] can't really trick it. So because like people will be behaving like we will get data on that video very quickly. And if it's not what it says it is, people will Like there's no SEO in the world that can make a bad video good or get someone

[21:22] good match for them. So I wouldn't spend a ton of time on that. I would just make serve the user. >> And so quality script for the video or a quality outline, end of the day even

[21:36] about viewer experience. >> Yeah. And like you can do it for primal reasons. Like if you want to reinforce what this video is about, when people they could be clicking on any video, they could be watching any platform,

[21:48] they could be going outside and like touching grass. So like they're turning and it's a risk and it's an investment. And if you pay that risk off, like if tell them what the video what they're going to get in that video, they are

[22:00] more likely to keep watching it because you've sort of taken away the anxiety. >> you're mentioning a really good framework and book that I know actually heard of. And if you were starting a channel from zero today,

[22:13] What is that? I'll make sure to link to it, but for those who maybe have just >> Yeah, it's sort of like you have a series of words that you it's important to your mission or to what you're the value that you're

[22:26] that. Like again, like if I go back to Legal Eagle, it's think like a lawyer. video and he establishes what you're going to get out of that video. By at thinking like a lawyer. And a lot of channels will have that.

[22:39] what the video's about. In this video you are going to X Y Z. And the more you know what this video's going to be about then." If they you if you deliver on deliver on it, people again will abandon the video. If you deliver on that, you

[22:54] start to build basically a reputation and retention say like go to Sean Cannell, he will teach you how to YouTube. >> And like whatever your branding is like I know Sean how to YouTube. In my head I

[23:07] the audience. >> That's great. And so Think Media uh that's a great classic book. I think it's been updated too for the social era as well and just a good book on branding and uh for all creators.

[23:22] thing to understand if you're dealing with audiences. like uh thoughts of your favorite books >> There's also like great books on like uh Save the Cat like on storytelling and

[23:35] yeah. So there's like like just be like if you want to be a creator like be a Ultimately serve the viewer, but also like learn all the things that people at. >> the Cat, one of the best on storytelling

[23:49] of all time for that every creator could learn from. One of the um about this all the time. There's layers to it, but there are channels that are potentially being deleted or demonetized. And a big thing has been

[24:04] mainly AI slop would be the reason, but it would seem that YouTube is using AI clearly to be able to do this at scale. And maybe some channels are getting sucked into this and they they are able to appeal in in these cases and maybe

[24:19] get monetization back, but it seems to be pretty massive. It's a big wave right now. What exactly is happening with channels being demonetized or deleted? content creator that is struggling to crack the YouTube code? Are you feeling

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[25:27] let's jump back into the episode. >> The core of it, there's no difference if you're using AI or not AI. Like, if you are creating spam as a person, if you're creating spam with CGI, with stock footage, with AI, like that is all

[25:41] against the community guidelines of YouTube, the ad-friendly guidelines, or monetization guidelines. So, I think like AI can help you scale like people who are making spam can scale it more if they're using AI just because there's so

[25:53] now, but the core is the same thing. And just like YouTube had to like deal with clickbait back in the day and then had to deal with waves of spam during the like the next generation of spam. So, it's very similar like there's there's

[26:08] there's no like new AI moderation in place. Um YouTube has always used like a mix of humans and AI for things like recommendations, for anti-spam, for moderation. Uh and if you you go back I

[26:21] think like whatever's happening now always feels like the most in your face, but if you go back a year, two years, three years, 10 years, like there's always been this tension. So, as much as possible YouTube wants to make sure they

[26:33] make sure that people have a great experience on YouTube, uh and I think like our CEO Neal Mohan called out in his annual letter that uh specifically AI slop is a challenge for YouTube and we want to use technologies

[26:46] developed to fight clickbait and to fight spam to do the same thing with the new spam. Uh so you might see like channels that are just like doing again highly repetitive content or like there's a

[27:00] whole list you can see for like spam, scam, all those kinds of engagement bait, all those sorts of things, low effort, low quality. Uh we really want mistake, we really want to fix that. Uh and you can do that in creator chat, you

[27:12] can do that in in Twitter. We might miss some channels that that people think we some channels incorrectly and we want to fix those. Uh I always tell people it's if the if the referee sees your foot out of bounds and calls you, the other guy's

[27:26] ref didn't see it. But if you point it out, like someone will go, "Hey, you will go, "Thanks. You're out of bounds, too." It's not going to It's not It's caught, too. >> One of the strongest words that I've

[27:39] >> Yeah. >> That if if you're like a faceless channel and you're making content, but nobody would know it was you. Like that video and that script was from ChatGPT could be on any other

[27:56] 100 or 1,000 channels. And so one of the advice pieces of advice that's floating unique brand. If especially you're going to do like an AI channel, if you will,

[28:08] be like maybe an animation channel. >> Yeah. But now AI just gives any creator >> the ability to create an AI avatar or something that's a unique brand. that seems to be that if you're going to use AI, you want there to be kind of

[28:23] some unique IP there, some human creativity behind there. So it can't channels. >> Yeah, so I would give that advice as a YouTube has a huge opinion on that. I think like as a creator though, like if

[28:36] RealLifeLore is a faceless channel, I Like there's no mistaking that video for anything else. Like it is distinct to those channels. But there are some videos where like to your point it could

[28:49] again, that's not new to AI. People have been clipping TV shows or clipping cartoons or like anime for years and trying to do the same thing. And like there's a whole bunch of like you can doing that you can get a you can

[29:02] because I think like something else people don't understand fair use like fair use is an affirmative defense and it's not like I edited it. transformative. But you can also be demonetized for reuse content. You can

[29:16] also have community guidelines for spam content like if you uploaded 300 movie clips like one after the other that are like very similar. So like there's just like the not being original I think has some issues that you could face. But

[29:29] also like no one builds an identity. No one cares if you're there or not. And also like you could eventually be found violative and then the effort you minimal because you automated it it was wasted.

[29:41] Yeah, so that's good advice. So what you're you're saying is is that we do have all these AI tools and Alphabet, parent company of Google and YouTube, is >> YouTube has a ton of AI tools. >> And not yeah, so the even AI video

[29:57] >> And not yeah, so the even AI video generation. But the key though is spam want to be putting human creativity behind it, originality behind it. If you go down like a YouTube automation faceless path.

[30:11] >> Yeah, I think like YouTube wants creators in the loop like YouTube is machines. Like if you do machine content that's like technically against the community guidelines as well. Like we want we want like AI and any tool to

[30:24] service human creativity and have humans in the loop. Like you should still be the taste person, the person deciding these things, making artistic choices. I've used the analogy before but like I used to do graphic design and I would

[30:38] paint like paint brush cars out of ad copy and then I got an airbrush and then content-aware fill, and now I have generative fill. Like, I'm still doing much faster to do it. It doesn't take me a day anymore. It takes like a few

[30:51] do things that you could never do before scale, but they should be helping you do things. >> So, speaking of AI, there's a massive uh button on your YouTube channel now in

[31:05] >> Yeah. >> On the front end, it's called Ask >> And I'm noticing we can hit it from two sides. One, it's this very powerful tool related to your channel. Break down what it is and what it can do.

[31:20] YouTube Analytics has always tried to give as much metrics as much information to people as possible. Like, I'm not great at that though. So, I'm not good at spreadsheets, I'm not good at pivot tables, and to be honest,

[31:33] statistics can be confusing. Like, we've seen that when people panic if a video they think their view duration has gone down, and it hasn't. It's only gone down clicked on it, didn't want to watch it, but if they go through traffic sources,

[31:48] go to browse, homepage, or they go to search, like their their view duration thinks to do that, so they think that and they turn off embedding or they hurt their channel. >> point there is that view duration

[32:01] on one video is a is a average number, but when you go to >> And the only thing that matters for the homepage is the homepage view duration. do not care about embedded view duration. Every traffic source is

[32:14] source. But, people worry about that. They think it's hurting their video or multi-track audio and do a different language and see like, "Oh, I got a $10 CPM in America, but I got a $2 CPM in another country. Now I'm only getting

[32:29] but the total you're getting is $12. That's what you're actually making, but "I'm going to turn off the translation. Uh and there's just like a ton of uh or CTR. CTR will tend to go down as virality goes up. Yeah. And then people

[32:43] wonder why I have a high CTR but I'm not getting views. It's because the So, I there that if you're not like really deeply in analytics are confusing. And like numbers oriented. And with Ask Studio, I think you can just have a

[32:56] conversation. So, you can just ask like, "What's happening in my comments? What's people saying? What like how did my last video do? What's the opportunity for the next video?" And just talk to it. And that just seems to me to unlock

[33:09] those are some of your favorite prompts. What listeners can do is they can in their account and start talking to an AI about their YouTube channel. And then like repeat the questions or like ask the like ask deeper questions. Like

[33:25] again, like have a whole conversation. >> So, then at the same time, the same technology is on the front end and can be a a button that is on my YouTube video. So, I can click like, I could click share,

[33:38] it might say, "Do you want a summary of this video?" What are your thoughts on the fears, founded or unfounded, for creators that are like, "Shoot. Now I put all this effort into a video, upload

[33:53] and someone could just summarize the the whole thing and they might not watch >> Yeah. I mean so, I go back to like YouTube YouTube only makes money when in YouTube's best interest to make sure that people are watching videos. There's

[34:07] someone's going to watch a video. Even if they click on it, they might pause lot of the stuff it's the same reason a creator can put a description into a clicked on it, you're still not sure. They're reading the description. Do I

[34:19] really want to watch this? I only have so much time." And the overview is there informed decision. So, the overview will tell them what's the video is about. And can also hit a button and complain about it. Send us feedback on it. Uh but it's

[34:33] really serve my need right now? And if it serves my need right now, I want to like some people worry about chapters. They're like, "Oh, people are going to video." But what we found is that previously people would be like, "I'm

[34:45] check the chapters and go, "Oh, this part is interesting." >> so it's not like yes, you are losing some watch time, but you're also >> Which is better than than than losing the watch time. And here it's the same

[34:58] element that people start to pick and choose what they want to watch more, but leaving. >> Is there any other aspects like in your Studio that we should be thinking about or need to know about?

[35:10] developing it like as fast as we can, too. So it's it's going to be a moving target. I think like keep using it, keep giving us feedback. If you see questions want, let us know uh because these things are trained. Uh

[35:23] it takes time to uh to get them up. Um I think right now it's it's doing a lot of good stuff, but there's huge potential. >> Now, there's also some changes to live. One of the biggest is that you can dual stream horizontal vertical at the same

[35:35] >> That So that's great. So one of the things we have like we have vertical videos is it can go into the Shorts feed. So it can lead to a lot more get people who just tire kick come in and dip out again, but you might also

[35:47] find a lot of new viewers that way. Uh but people were having to either go live horizontally and then start a whole separate stream for vertically, then you have separate chat rooms and you have two URLs to manage. came a lot. So what

[36:01] already is you can go into the YouTube Studio, the live studio, and you can create a stream that is both horizontal and vertical with a unified chat. So vertical uh video, and people on desktops and TVs

[36:16] both in the same chat room. The part we're building out now is to be able to do that for third parties as well, like your OBS or your Vmix or your eCam. So canvases, put in two stream keys, have that unified chat as well.

[36:29] third-party, it could just be cleaner. >> More customization. >> Yeah, more customization. Get it all set, and then have it go live, but you you're doing both. And yeah, and you

[36:41] >> The way that I guess comment Yeah, that they'd be at little bit different vertical if you bring them on screen. your game on the side in your horizontal stream, but you want it on the bottom on

[36:54] graphics or like other information. It just lets you set up the canvas the way >> That's cool. YouTube recently did the four big priorities, right of the year. what do you think for the new creator, or those that want to stay on the edge,

[37:09] to? What are you excited about? >> So, I like my answer's going to just totally identify me. Like it's like the dynamic brand mentions like segments. So, like right now you burn in brand segment, and it's just there. Like you

[37:21] if you really want to. But basically like it's either burned in forever, or So, what you're going to be able to do is just set a spot like you do for a mid-roll ad, upload your asset, and it'll play that brand deal at that spot.

[37:35] example, maybe you have a different brand deal in the US versus the UK versus um Hong Kong, maybe. And so, you can set a different deal. Well, initially it's going to be, I believe, based on a month. So, like after that

[37:49] say, "Hey, it's working really great. Do you want to re-up?" Or you can go to to take on this slot?" Or you could switch to a house product if like you anymore. You're not giving them free advertising anymore.

[38:01] >> Yeah, your own product. Like let's say like you're doing the Think Media convention. You could have like for the first month all your videos, cuz "Hey, sign up for the Think Media convention." And then as soon as the

[38:14] the replays." And then a month later, switch to like some other product. of the biggest things that we're excited about. Lots of rumblings about this. Right now on audio podcasting, you can do dynamic ad insertion at the

[38:29] Turn it on, turn it off. And that could something you've paid a sponsor for based on based on CPMs or your own in-house advertising.

[38:41] >> So, we're working on it now. It's going to come out, we hope, by the end of the though. So, like it's not meant to be a replacement for mid-roll ads. So, you be about anyone's product, but it has to be a brand deal, yeah.

[38:55] is it Is it like the video plays and it triggers an ad at the point as opposed to changing the length of the YouTube >> Uh yeah, it'll it'll just insert whatever. So, if you have like a

[39:08] to a 3-minute brand spot and it'll dynamically increase the length of the video to to >> So, would video lengths be changing? >> video, depending on the spot. So, there's still It seems like there's

[39:21] how this is going to How often could you do it? Could you change it every day? like a month-long interval, but like I think in the future we'll we might do views, then after a million views, you swap it out. I don't think we're going

[39:35] to have very rigid time limits. Sometimes people use way things specifically. >> what I wonder if like Yeah, to your that's not good for the system. >> Right. We do We do have our own events

[39:48] in Vegas. We do like four a year. We do YouTube events. And so, it would, of dynamically insert an ad. But yeah, how often could we do it? >> Yeah, we'll get a lot of more details later in the year. Yeah, yeah.

[40:01] >> So, as we land the plane, um and we think about, you know, new opportunities for seasoned and advanced creators, also across the board, we all want to get views. What do you think is one thing

[40:15] notice? >> Yeah, I think it goes back to that original thing. I think like think of the algorithm as the audience. Think about your audience. I think if it's if if you are in mainstream media

[40:28] properties now that aren't pulling views and there's no algorithm to blame it on. audience affinity. But I think on YouTube because there is an algorithm, you can see like the video did great. Yay me. Video did badly. Damn it, the

[40:41] and that doesn't give you an opportunity like you lose all your power that way. your destiny. But if you think about it and like what did this video miss? Like what didn't this video do well? In hindsight you can tell like oh this

[40:54] what's the next video doing great. It's all you can do is look at it, learn from have that like I want to make the audience happy mentality that unlocks so much like future resiliency for you on YouTube.

[41:11] you think about trends, you obviously get to connect with a lot of creators. I what's funny about this is sometimes a lot of people like to think in extremes. There's been the term of like the Mr. Beastification of YouTube which

[41:24] would be like higher retention editing. And then people go to the that's dead. And I'm like that's ridiculous. It's obviously not. You know, there's massive audiences. But they'll say the pendulum swing is to

[41:37] authentic content. What does that mean? But it might be more stripped back, curious maybe what do you see on the horizon when you think about trends, white space? >> Yeah.

[41:49] >> Yeah, create to where the the audience is going to be. Um I think part of this sometimes people think like there's a Beastification because all they're watching is Mr. Beast content. But at that same time that would when Jimmy was

[42:02] blowing up, the biggest trend on YouTube was cozy comfort content. It came out of with me and then it turned to like cozy camping and like woodworking where it was no longer I want to learn how to make wood or leather. I just want to

[42:15] doing things. It's like it's playing in the background. It reminds me other the the biggest channel and like hour-long videos getting millions of Uh, not one channel, but all these channels. And we've seen a lot of that,

[42:28] too. Like just people like making epoxy tables and all sorts of things. So, uh, YouTube is so vast that it's very hard to say like there's a beastification or any like uh, an authentication fication of anything. It's just what it what

[42:41] you're looking at um, is where you see that. And like our our friend Todd Bouprey loves to send me like corners of YouTube I've never imagined before. And they're like they're it's it's it serves so many people. So, like

[42:53] you can do almost anything you want on YouTube. You have to be realistic in for this because some topics just don't have as broad an appeal. Mr. Beast works because almost anybody can watch a challenge video. If you're doing like

[43:06] there's probably a smaller audience for that. But like if that's what you love, you can find and build an audience and a community around that. I think the like having those relationships, doing live. Like you know the power of live. Like

[43:19] they've been building audiences and community. Um, I think Speed has also shown like how fast you can blow up, but also like how you can mobilize people. to a street that they think Speed is on is ridiculous. And I think people are

[43:32] next generation like there's always like everything gets reinvented. They discover we discover live streaming every 3 years. I think now we're in a streaming that all of that is going to be like just growing more and more over

[43:46] say is kind of the mindset? Cuz I think it's easy You know, I've been doing this a long time. I started in 2007 making videos for my small town church. And so that's almost, you know, up on

[44:00] And all the time people are always like, "Is it too late?" You get You kind of get more saturation idea or more more competition. But yeah, YouTube is just like that you mentioned the bubbles cuz it's totally true. Our algorithm makes

[44:15] happening when >> Or our social media circles. whereas somebody else's algorithm or their homepage is a whole different >> I get it all the time like you only reply to big creators. I'm like, no,

[44:27] respond to everybody, but you're only following the big creators, so that's >> [laughter] >> Yeah, it's interesting like perception versus reality. So I am curious when we look forward cuz YouTube just turned 20

[44:39] and in the recent, you know, event, it was kind of like what it what's on the horizon of the next 20 years. Like, what do you think is the legitimate opportunity though for like the new creator

[44:51] starting right now looking at the uphill battle of like how competitive it feels >> One of my favorite things and this by no means I know means the first person to say this is like go to a big creator, go to like Jimmy's page or Mark Rober's

[45:05] page, sort by oldest. Like you will see like they started at the bottom and it took hundreds if not thousands of videos for them to start making it. I think I haven't and we I see this on Reddit, I see this in other places. It's like, I

[45:19] posted videos for a couple weeks and I'm I'm not blowing up yet. Like I'm over. Like just like we had to like post videos for a long time to get any like the first few years on YouTube were

[45:31] to learn. I think the advantage now is that there's so many more people to there was no road map, there were no giant YouTubers to like certainly not across many genres to actually learn from, to see things. There was nowhere

[45:44] There weren't channels like Think Media to help people. Now there's so much information available that if you I are strategic about it, you pay attention and you look at it like I need

[45:56] any other job. Like there's basketball courts everywhere, getting in the NBA is upload to YouTube getting to like to become a top creator is still hard. But endless opportunity now. >> That's good. And there is a resource,

[46:11] there always has been, but what's been the journey of the creator insider channel? There used to be two channels, now there's one. We'll >> Yeah. What Yeah, what is this resource? >> So uh YouTube has a few channels cuz

[46:24] it's YouTube. Um one of them was Creator Insider which was started by the product team and it was really like the the goal was to put YouTube creators together be more of a dialogue like the product teams would see the feedback

[46:37] from the creators and the creators would see like the actual human beings making how important creators were to them. And we also had YouTube Insider which was events and talk to creators and do that, but it became like unwieldy to manage

[46:52] now under Creator Insider. You can find Creator Insider Shorts where uh like all different kinds of places give you their best advice on all sorts of things like to monetize or how to do brand like everything that you can think of. And

[47:08] then we have Ask YouTube where like I'll go to Ask Todd like the recently there mattered. Like the file name of the video upload really matters and I asked matter at all." And I want to be able to give people those answers from the

[47:21] we're going to have like news and stuff where we try to bring um people who work at YouTube together stuff that we're launching. >> Yeah, I love it. So we'll make sure that

[47:33] then if people want to connect with you, follow you, where can they find you? things. >> Yeah. Think Media Podcast, check out uh links in the show notes and smash like if you're on the video version of this.

[47:47] name is Sean Cannell, your guide to building a profitable YouTube channel and we will catch you in a future episode.