A Guide to All Creative Directors

A Guide to All Creative Directors

A Guide to All Creative Directors

A Guide to All Creative Directors

A Guide to All Creative Directors

A Guide to All Creative Directors

A Guide to All Creative Directors

A Guide to All Creative Directors

A Guide to All Creative Directors

A Guide to All Creative Directors

A Guide to All Creative Directors

A Guide to All Creative Directors

A Guide to All Creative Directors

A Guide to All Creative Directors

A Guide to All Creative Directors

A Guide to All Creative Directors

A Guide to All Creative Directors

A Guide to All Creative Directors

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Understanding the success of YouTube video-essays and podcasts

Algorithm changes on America's most used platform

Understanding the success of YouTube video-essays and podcasts  Algorithm changes on America's most used platform

On YouTube, a specific content format is becoming increasingly popular: video podcasts. The phenomenon is growing so much that the platform has become the most used in the United States by those who consume such programs. As a result, a growing number of content creators prefer to create long-form video essays—translated as "video essay"—which, despite their length, often achieve great success. For instance, last May, the American YouTuber Jenny Nicholson published a four-hour video entirely dedicated to a Star Wars-themed hotel, and the content garnered over ten million views. The phenomenon likely stems from the success of the podcast sector, where long audio content, particularly interviews, has been common for a long time—for example, episodes of the world's most listened-to podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, average three hours in length.

American computer scientist Lex Fridman, one of the most followed figures in the tech field, recently hosted Ukrainian President Zelensky on his YouTube program: the episode lasted over three hours and reached 4 million views. But this isn't the first time Fridman has opted for such lengthy interviews: in the past, he had a five-hour conversation with the founder of Anthropic, an AI company, while an interview with Elon Musk—a regular guest on the program—lasted over eight hours. Other examples of this trend come from channels like ContraPoints, which publishes long satirical videos on culture, politics, and gender issues; LEMMiNO, specializing in documentaries about historical mysteries; and Folding Ideas, which tackles various current topics through video essays that often exceed 60 minutes. In Italy, the phenomenon is exemplified by the content creator duo Cosa mangiamo oggi, who have transitioned from offering 15-minute content to videos increasingly lasting between 30 and 45 minutes.

Even though the famous YouTuber Hank Green—founder of well-known channels like Crash Course and SciShow—has described the success of video essays on the platform as a mystery, the reasons behind the phenomenon are tied to both YouTube's algorithm and changing user habits. The platform began favoring longer content as early as 2014, and in subsequent years, more content creators started producing videos exceeding a certain length to take advantage of the economic benefits offered by the platform. YouTube rewards long videos because this keeps users on the platform longer, thus exposing them to more advertisements. «Now that platforms are as big as linear television, and even bigger, the audience they target and the monetization strategies are the same» said Andrea Girolami, journalist, content manager, and author of the Scrolling Infinito newsletter. At the same time, the phenomenon is pushing some YouTubers to focus almost exclusively on video length at the expense of quality. However, this is not the only factor at play: changing user habits are also contributing to the spread of video essays. Today, YouTube is much more than a video portal accessible via desktop and mobile devices; nearly half of the platform's users now watch videos on television. In this sense, YouTube has become the most-used TV streaming service in the United States, even surpassing Netflix.

The main consequence of the success of video essays is that medium-length content—those around five minutes, which were the most common on YouTube for years—are overshadowed by Shorts. However, the trend of longer videos also affects other platforms, including TikTok. Initially launched for creating and sharing very short content, the Chinese social network has increased the clip duration limit over the years, reaching up to ten minutes. TikTok has also conducted experiments—targeted at users in certain countries—allowing uploads of videos up to thirty minutes or even an hour. Nevertheless, TikTok remains a platform primarily used via mobile devices, so the main incentives for creating video essays do not stem from TV viewership as in YouTube's case.