TOGETHER WITH

It’s Thursday and a new social app aims to deplatform rage-baiters by giving users the power to rate posts based on factors like “politeness” and “insightfulness.”

Today’s News

LONG AND SHORT OF IT

YouTube is making Shorts views go up

The update: YouTube is changing the way it counts Shorts views. After previously requiring users to watch for an undisclosed number o seconds before registering an official view, YouTube will now add to the tally when a Short plays for any amount of time.

In an email to Tubefilter, a YouTube rep explained that there will be no “minimum watch time requirement” starting March 31. From that date on, YouTube will register a view any time a video loads in your Shorts feed—even if it only plays for a moment. The platform’s previous metric (now called “engaged views”) will still be used for calculating monetization and when determining channel eligibility for the YouTube Partner Program, and can be tracked by creators via their analytics dashboard.

The context: YouTube’s liberal new approach to recording views brings it in line with Instagram Reels, where view counts show “the number of times your reel starts to play or replay" (per Instagram). TikTok hasn’t been as forthcoming about its tabulation methods, but view counts on the Bytedance-owned platform typically outpace numbers for similar videos on Shorts and Reels. That apparent gap gives YouTube a strong motive to switch up its own system, since it needs to be able to show advertisers that Shorts are just as watched as other vertical video uploads.

If cheapening the definition of a view to keep up with the Joneses sounds like a bad idea, then you might remember how Facebook landed in hot water by overemphasizing the traffic its videos were receiving. The platform’s loose accounting led to a massive class action lawsuit from creators and media companies who felt that Facebook had “miscalculated” the popularity of its native videos.

Now at leas there’s some transparency about the soon-to-be inflated viewership numbers. And it’s not hard to see why YouTube is making the switch. Creators, advertisers, and viewers like big numbers, and they like to see numbers rise at a rapid pace. YouTube is feeding into that desire.

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Take it from TFTC: 

1. A finance podcasting powerhouse with 58K subscribers, TFTC hit a growth ceiling on YouTube when their inventory became saturated with existing advertisers.
   
   

2. It was clear they needed to expand—but their team didn’t have the bandwidth to create content for a totally new platform.
   
   

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HEADLINES IN BRIEF 📰

• RedNote’s momentum may have stalled following TikTok’s (temporary?) return, but its leaders still see an opportunity for westward expansion—and a potential IPO. (Tubefilter)
  
  

• Projections from Emarketer estimate that X’s U.S. ad revenue will grow 17.5% in 2025, representing the platform’s first year of advertising revenue growth since its acquisition by Elon Musk. (CNBC)
  
  

• A recent survey conducted by Pew Research Center found that just 34% of U.S. respondents support a national ban of TikTok—a significant drop from the 50% who supported a ban in 2023. (Pew Research Center)
  ​

• Enterprise browser company Island has announced a $250 million Series E financing round, bringing its total valuation to nearly $5 billion. (Island)

TV TALK

Gen Z prefers premium content to premium TV. Should streamers sound the alarm?

The study: When it comes to keeping up with creators, traditional channels are on a time crunch—if they don’t change course soon, their market share might decline among younger generations. According to Deloitte’s latest Digital Media Trends report, 56% of Gen Z respondents already find creator content “more relevant” than premium movies and TV shows (as compared to 43% of Millennials). The consulting company also found that Gen Z spends more time on social media platforms compared to traditional media channels:

In the last few years, several studies have determined that consumers of a certain age trust influencers more than traditional stars. Deloitte’s latest report is no exception; the company found that 52% of Gen Z prefers to take advice from creators over other sources in the entertainment industry.

The context: That preference drives advertiser interest, which in turn begets a larger volume of content. On platforms like YouTube, users simply have more to choose from than they do on streaming subscription services. At the same time, some streamers have alienated viewers with shortsighted content development decisions. When Netflix first started airing originals more than a decade ago, for instance, it produced award-winning fare like Orange is the New Black; now, it frequently caters to the lowest common denominator with programming like Love Is Blind.

That strategy, combined with rising subscription prices, has led Gen Z to develop what Widener describes as “a level of frustration” with the whole industry. It may be too late for legacy media to reclaim its hold on those younger viewers—but a focus on quality over quantity would be a good start.

ON BRAND

MrBeast, Lady Gaga, and Brittany Broski will headline YouTube’s fandom-forward Brandcast

The big presentation: YouTube is headed back to the Upfronts. For the fourth year in a row, the platform will host its annual advertiser-bait event, Brandcast, during the TV-focused marathon of presentations. Like most digital platforms, YouTube used to present to marketers during the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s digital-focused NewFronts. That changed in 2022, when it went all-in on a bid for TV dollars by moving to the Upfronts.

YouTube’s return to the Upfronts in 2025 is no surprise—especially since CEO Neal Mohan has been pushing two key points of messaging at every opportunity since the platform’s last Brandcast:

1. YouTube has been the #1 most-watched streaming service on TVs in the U.S. for two years (per Nielsen).
   
   

2. Living room TV watch time has surpassed mobile and desktop viewing, making TVs the most frequent destination for YouTube viewers.

The details: In relation to those stats, Mohan has repeatedly pitched YouTube as not only the top destination for digital content and the top streaming service, but also as the center of culture for the next generation. The CEO’s argument that YouTubers (and their self-founded production studios) are the TV and Hollywood of tomorrow is shaping up to be a key focus of this year’s Brandcast:

A star-studded lineup will drive home that messaging when Brandcast goes live at 5:30 PM EST on May 14. MrBeast, Lady Gaga, and Brittany Broski will all appear onstage at the Lincoln Center in New York City alongside Mohan himself, YouTube CBO Mary Ellen Coe, and Google President Sean Downey.

WATCH THIS 🎙️

After a $207M acquisition, Napster is entering the metaverse

The experiment: Napster—aka the most iconic music-sharing service of the ‘90s—has been acquired by Infinite Reality for a whopping $207 million. That unexpected news dropped on Tuesday, when Infinite Reality (which describes itself as a “media, ecommerce, and marketing company focused on 3D and AI-powered experiences”) dropped a teaser trailer for the new-and-improved Napster on X.

The video in question places Napster squarely in the 2020s (and, apparently, in the metaverse) with the inclusion of features like “Playlist GPT” and “the first 3D immersive experience within a streaming platform.” Check out the full clip here.

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Today's newsletter is from: Emily Burton, Drew Baldwin, Sam Gutelle, and Josh Cohen.