--- title: "The \"Long-Formification\" of Short-Form Content. YouTube just extended shorts from 60 seconds to 3..." canonical_url: "https://typefully.com/t/6UwNBzc" markdown_url: "https://typefully.com/t/6UwNBzc.md" agent_guide_url: "https://typefully.com/ai-agents.md" post_delimiter: "***" robots: noindex source: typefully_shared_draft share_id: "6UwNBzc" --- The "Long-Formification" of Short-Form Content. YouTube just extended shorts from 60 seconds to 3 minutes. But wasn't short-form content about to take over the internet? Let me take you through this journey. 🧵 *** On January 1, 2019, Gymshark, a fitness apparel and accessories brand, launched its "Change Your Life" campaign on TikTok which involved users to - choose personal fitness goals and upload them on January 1, 2019 - keep uploading their journey till 66 days - tag #gymshark66 *** Being dominated by giants such as Nike and Adidas and access to relatively smaller budgets, Gymshark's primary goal was building a fan-led community that strongly supports the brand. And oh boy, did they nail it! *** Since then, this campaign from Gymshark has been one of the most dominating campaigns of all time. Gymshark had around 1.5m followers in January 2019 which rose to 4 million by the end of 66 days, generating more than 300m+ views and over 140,000 user-generated videos. ![image8.png.webp](https://d3e0luujhwn38u.cloudfront.net/original/img/original/128724/f2d723c6-e0b2-4753-8a18-d3eb4b1ebaeb.webp) *** This is what short-form content does. No fancy equipment or intricate editing, you just need a smartphone camera or an existing video that you can repurpose to short-form content. On top of that, spending some time to craft the story and script strategically can pay off hugely. *** But when did short-form content become a thing? Infographics that crack you up at a glance, short podcasts you watch on the go, and even blog posts packing a punch in under 1,000 words. Why the sudden shift? *** The first sign of short-form video content was in 2013 when 'Vine' pioneered the concept of six-second loop videos, becoming the breeding ground for creativity.  No set-ups or long punchlines, it was about delivering quickly and unexpectedly. *** A simple concept like flipping a water bottle, eating cinnamon or the mannequin challenge could explode across the platform, with creators putting their own spin on each challenge. Sadly, it wasn't able to monetize and retain creators and hence bowed out in 2017. *** However, its spirit lives on in TikTok, a platform built on the same foundation of bite-sized brilliance. Upload videos of up to one minute, choose b/w hundreds of filters and collaborate with other creators. This made it an instant favourite of the masses, especially the GenZ. *** TikTok has been downloaded over 5 billion times worldwide. It was the most downloaded app globally in 2022 and the second most downloaded app in December 2023. Just like Gymshark, hundreds of brands have leveraged TikTok to say Hi to the world and market themselves. *** But it was not long until Instagram launched 'Reels' in 2020 as its player in the game called the short-form content. Instagram already being the brand it is, didn't find it difficult to get users. Reels have 700m+ users as of Oct 2024, about 11% of the global adult population. *** But how did this happen? The phenomenon of netizens abandoning long-form content and clinging to the short-form. Long podcasts are now using short clips as reels, music videos are being made to look good on vertical screens, and it's always the short-form content going viral. *** It's because of the reduced attention spans. Studies indicate that the average attention span has reduced to just 8.25 seconds, a drop from the 12-second average in 2000. The younger the audience, the shorter their attention span is. *** Short videos provide instant gratification, much like snacks for hunger. Constant, fresh, bite-sized content = quick dopamine release = satisfaction. This quick reward cycle keeps users hooked, encouraging them to watch more short videos. *** And to no surprise, most of the audience of TikTok and Reels is between the ages of 18-25. Genz doesn't relate to traditional marketing. Being exposed to short content since the day they were on the internet, they now only relate to quirky, catchy and shareable campaigns. *** Another factor that has made quirky campaigns famous is the rise of meme culture and trends. Remember, when memes were only limited to dad jokes that made us laugh our as*es off on Facebook? Now, the meaning has completely changed. *** Every situation, every movie, every character, and every campaign can be summarised in a meme today. With memes, the rise of 'trends' of TikTok and reels has grown tenfold. A boring campaign can easily be made quirky using a combination of memes and trends. *** So can we reckon that there is no going back from short-form content now? Even shorter, micro-content will rule our feeds from some years from now? The answer is NO. *** Although we have seen the world shifting to short content, we cannot say that long-form content is dead. In fact, since 2020, we have seen 'N' number of long-form podcasts being started on YouTube and Spotify and doing well. You know the reason why? *** "Audience loyalty". Short content may get better views than long form, but what separates these two is the quality of the audience. The short-form content audience sees hundreds of videos and remembers nothing, but people watch long-form creators being their 'true fans'. *** It's easy to sell products 'once' to a user because your content went viral, but it's only with long-form content that you make a real connection with your audience and make them buy your stuff again and again and again. *** Plus, virality is short-lived. The trend with which you are creating your short content will change someday and you will have to adapt. But long-form content remains. People will never stop watching educational podcasts, interviews, skits and even personal vlogs. *** Platforms have already realised this. Each Tiktok now can be 10 minutes compared to 15 seconds in 2018. Reels went from 15 seconds to 90 seconds. Youtube Shorts from 15 seconds to 3 minutes soon. WHY? *** It's because - 'Extended time gives a better chance to leverage'. The lengthier the content, the more time the platform gets to monetize. *** Also, we cannot forget the "Netflix effect". Compared to TikTok, Netflix has only 22% of the users — but gets 8.5 billion hours more monthly watch time. Netflix's CEO literally said their competition is against sleep. "People will binge if it's quality". *** In 2005, YouTube's video limit was just 10 minutes. It was raised to 15 minutes in 2010 and later removed altogether. Twitter doubled its character limit in 2017 from 140 to 280 characters. *** Short-form content earns short-term attention. Long-form content earns long-term 'trust'.