YouTube Shorts is the place for short-form video content on Youtube. It was launched in 2020 and has since grown in popularity. YouTube Shorts is well known for being thought of as a copy of TikTok, as they are very similar in their functions. 

YouTube Shorts has next to no uniqueness in function, but extreme uniqueness in content. Many children and teens will use YouTube Shorts if they aren’t allowed TikTok, but many just prefer YouTube Shorts over TikTok. This has led to a small community of 11 – 15 year old creators who end up having fairly large audiences. Two of the most notable of these creators would have to be India (@indiaslayz) with 263k subscribers and Olivia Loren (@SincerelyLivOfficial.) with 525k subscribers. Both girls are 13 years old, and are very active on their accounts, sometimes posting multiple times a day. They both have fairly large audiences and interact with their fans frequently. Their audiences are full of girls about their age, and many of their viewers also have fairly large followings.

Many content creators make only shorts as their videos, and do not upload their content onto any other social media platforms. Lots of content featured on YouTube Shorts is exclusive to YouTube Shorts, and can’t be seen elsewhere. On the opposite end of that, some content uploaded on YouTube Shorts is uploaded by creators who are more active on TikTok, and therefore do not interact with their YouTube Shorts audience.

Due to YouTube being used by many people, including children, children are more likely to use YouTube Shorts over TikTok. There are many large communities unique to YouTube Shorts, such as png tubers and speedrunning shorts videos. Many things make the content within the YouTube Shorts community different from TikTok.

There are many channels and videos that are well-known within the YouTube Shorts community. There are memes completely exclusive to YouTube Shorts, and things that would not have the same accessibility elsewhere.

TikTok has a lot of paid ads, but YouTube Shorts has many small companies selling their products on shorts alone. Many products are well-known in the shorts community for being extremely bad.

One well-known advertiser is the SlushyCup channel. The SlushyCup channel is well-known within the shorts community for making bad products and promoting them for a long period of time before completely switching businesses. It has become a joke within the community, and the comments on almost any SlushyCup video will reference their business decisions in a joking way. 

Another YouTube Shorts exclusive thing was the waffle house host. A shorts creator by the name of Jonny RaZer set a challenge for his viewers to spam a certain phrase on as many YouTube Shorts videos as possible, but it quickly spiraled out of control. This led to extreme amounts of spam, not only on YouTube Shorts but also on regular YouTube videos as well. This stunt ended up expanding YouTube Shorts’ viewership but also brought a lot of attention to YouTube Shorts on their own.

YouTube itself has been pushing YouTube Shorts for a long time and heavily encouraging users to post shorts, as well as to interact with such content. This has brought a negative stigma to YouTube Shorts and many associate it with being a cash grab, but others defend YouTube Shorts claiming it is a great alternative to TikTok.